United Nations (UN) chief Antonio Guterres pleaded on Saturday at the Cairo Peace Summit for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, demanding global "action to end this godawful nightmare."

Earlier, the U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for humanitarian pauses in Gaza.

Brazilian Ambassador to the UN Sergio Franca Danese said he regretted that collective action had stalled. "Very sadly, the Council was yet again unable to adopt a resolution on the crisis, again silence and inaction prevailed," he said.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in an explanation of her country's vote, said the U.S. "is disappointed this (draft) resolution made no mention of Israel's right of self-defense."

Military aid questioned

The White House on Friday released a set of funding requests including $14.3 billion in assistance for Israel. The majority of that money would help with air and missile defense systems.

Josh Paul, the director of congressional and public affairs for the state department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, on Wednesday resigned over the U.S. government "rushing" to provide arms to Israel.

Paul told ABC News that he has been amazed and touched by the amount of outreach that he has had from people across the interagency and in the legislative branch. He expressed belief that there are a lot of people who feel the same way.

In another interview with Politico magazine, he said people need to understand that there are just a lot of innocent human beings, civilians, on both sides. The majorities of both populations just want to live in peace, just want to live their lives, raise their families, he said.

"People don't grasp the day-to-day realities, and tend to only see one side of the conflict, because that's the side that's easy to access," Paul said.

Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, warned the U.S. against sending weapons to Israel, saying it would further complicate the situation in Gaza during a phone conversation with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler.

Wang Jin, associate professor and specialist in Middle Eastern studies at Northwest University in China's Xi'an City, told CGTN that the U.S. military aid to Israel contradicts the "peace" it has been calling for and may lead to escalation of the conflict. 

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(Cover: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington D.C., U.S., October 19, 2023. /CFP)