Israel on Saturday hailed the US veto of a UN resolution that would have condemned Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip as 'very satisfactory' while the Palestinians said it would encourage further Israeli attacks on civilians.
"The American veto is very satisfactory. The draft resolution did not stipulate that what happened at Beit Hanun was a tragic error," government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.
The Arab-sponsored draft resolution would have condemned Wednesday's artillery strike on the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun that killed 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children, as well as Palestinian rocket firing into the Jewish state.
But a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas swiftly condemned the veto, saying it would encourage Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
"We condemn this veto," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. "We feel it will encourage Israel to continue its escalation against the Palestinian people."
US Ambassador John Bolton said the text was "unbalanced", "biased against Israel and politically motivated", adding that it did not provide an "even-handed characterisation" of the shelling.
Israel has expressed regret for the attack, attributing it to a technical error.
As one of the council's five permanent members along with Britain, China, France and Russia, the United States has veto power which it has now used 82 times, often to shield the Jewish state from censure.
Its previous use of the veto was in July to block a Qatari-sponsored draft resolution that would have condemned Israel's military onslaught in Gaza as "disproportionate force" and would have demanded a halt to Israeli operations in the territory.
Ten of the council's 15 members voted in favour of the amended text, introduced by Qatar on behalf of Arab member states, and four -- Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia -- abstained.