Middle East latest: US vetoes a Gaza cease-fire resolution

The United States vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with the Americans saying they the resolution Wednesday was not linked to an immediate release of hostages still held by Hamas.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah was showing signs of progress. However Israel’s defense minister says his country wants the right to act militarily against Hezbollah in any agreement to end the fighting.

Lebanon’s government is likely to view any such demand as an infringement on its sovereignty, complicating efforts to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that erupted into all-out war in September.

Israeli strikes and combat in Lebanon have killed more than 3,500 people and wounded 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The war has displaced nearly 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians, including some foreign farmworkers, have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles. Hezbollah began firing into Israel the day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered the conflict in Gaza.

Israel’s blistering war of retaliation in the Gaza Strip has killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and another 250 were abducted. Around 100 hostages remain inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.