🔴 Live: US vetoes Palestinian request for full UN membership

US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood votes against members of the Security Council allowing Palestinian UN membership during a Security Council at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. © Eduardo Munoz, Reuters

The United States on Thursday effectively stopped the United Nations from recognising a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny the Palestinian Authority full membership of the world body. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the situation in the Middle East. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the situation in the Middle East.

   Summary:

• A senior Revolutionary Guards general threatened on Thursday to target Israel's "nuclear facilities" if it strikes Iranian nuclear sites, state media reported, in retaliation for Tehran's weekend attack on Israel.

• European Union leaders agreed Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Iran's drone and missile producers over Tehran's unprecedented weekend attack on Israel.
• Qatar is reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas after suffering criticism, its prime minister said on Wednesday. This comes as Western powers are seeking to dissuade Israel from escalating regional hostilities in a riposte to the Iranian attack. 
• The Security Council vote on the Palestinians' bid to become a full member state of the United Nations is scheduled to take place Thursday, diplomats said.
• At least 33,970 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 76,575 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.

Yesterday's key developments:

• Dismantling the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, as sought by Israel, would accelerate Gaza's slide into famine and doom generations of children to despair, the organisation's head warned Wednesday.           
• Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese currency exchanger in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives.
• Palestinians in the occupied West Bank rallied Wednesday calling for the release of prisoners held by Israel without charge and for families to again be able to visit their incarcerated loved ones.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday accused Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of taking advantage of regional tensions "to stay in power".         
• Iran celebrated the "success" of its weekend drone and missile attack on Israel as it staged an annual military parade on Wednesday.                                           

About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:

Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.

The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies. 

For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.

(FRANCE 24 with AP) 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)