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The United Nations Security Council has failed to pass a United States draft resolution calling for, but not demanding, a ceasefire in Israel’s continuing war on Gaza after two permanent members chose to veto it.

The draft put before the Council on Friday received 11 votes in favour, three against – from Russia, China and Algeria – and one abstention by Guyana.

Russia and China both exercised their veto against the resolution, which would have spoken of the “imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire” and condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Moscow accused Washington of a “hypocritical spectacle” that does not pressure Israel.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said the draft was exceedingly politicised and contained an “effective green light” for Israel to mount a military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.

Nebenzia said there was no call for a ceasefire in the resolution’s text and accused the US leadership of “deliberately misleading the international community”.

China’s representative, Zhang Jun, said the draft “dodged the most central issue, that of a ceasefire” through its “ambiguous” language.

“Nor does it even provide an answer to the question of realising a ceasefire in the short term,” he added. No ‘demand’ for ceasefire

While the US promoted the measure as calling for a ceasefire, critics pointed out that the draft falls short of demanding an end to the war.

The proposal backs the “imperative” for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides”, differing from previous draft resolutions vetoed by Washington, which demanded an unconditional ceasefire.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter on Thursday, the InfoWars creator claimed: "Israel has lost the high ground. This is not war. It is robotic mass genocide.

"Section 1091 of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits genocide whether committed in time of peace or time of war. Genocide is defined in § 1091 and includes violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group."

Since being shared, Jones' post has received more than 4 million views.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Israel declared war on Hamas, launching air strikes into the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian militant group is based.

Supplies of food, energy, fuel and medicine to Gaza were cut off, before Israel began a ground offensive into the territory in late October. As of March 22, at least 31,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Associated Press, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.

A report by the World Food Programme, published on Monday, said 1.1 million of Gaza's 2.3 million population are facing "catastrophic hunger," while the U.N. found that an average of 178 Palestinians have been injured daily since the war started.

Jones also linked to a viral post by Furkan Gözükara (@GozukaraFurkan). The X user shared footage from Al Jazeera purporting to show the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killing four unarmed Palestinians in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.

Jones' post sparked mixed reactions from fellow X users. Some agreed with the 51-year-old, accusing Israel of "war crimes."

"Israel needs to stop what they are doing to Gaza," commented @scksgrypr.

"There is no justifying this," said @Charlesrat74.

"Israel lost the high ground months ago," wrote Ava Petrucci. "All that has changed is that it's becoming undeniable."

Others disagreed with the podcaster's stance, telling Jones to "tone down the genocide rhetoric."

"Every military is guilty of killing civilians not just Israel," said @jared_texasn22.

"[Israel] need to do everything they can to negate Hamas' offensive capabilities for as long as possible," wrote Al Ruddy.

"Before leveling such baseless charges at Israel, how about asking Hamas to release the 130+ hostages they still hold, including a one-year-old child," said Michael Heister.

"How do you know Israel is in control of the drone?" asked Big Mike. "Hamas has drones also. There needs to be more proof than just this footage."

Jones was banned from X, then Twitter, in 2012 for abusive behavior. However, CEO Elon Musk—who purchased the social network in 2022—reinstated Jones's account in December following a user poll.

The radio host garnered a huge following online with his right-wing views and conspiracy theories but is perhaps most known for calling the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax and facing several legal battles as a result.

In December 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, along with six teachers, before turning the gun on himself.

Several of the victims' families sued Jones after he repeatedly claimed the shooting was staged. He was ordered to pay $1.5 billion, later reduced to half of Jones' annual earnings of more than $9 million.

Trump Media, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, is poised to become a publicly listed company, with shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp set to vote on Friday on whether to acquire it.

Mr Trump would have a stake of at least 58% in the merged company, worth more than $3bn at Digital World's current share prices.

Digital World, or DWAC (pronounced D-whack), is what is known as a SPAC, or a shell business created expressly to buy another firm and take it public.

It's an astonishing potential windfall for Mr Trump in exchange for a business whose own auditor warned last year it was at risk of failure.

Never mind the many red flags associated with the deal, including unresolved lawsuits from former business partners. There's also an $18m settlement that Digital World agreed to pay last year to resolve fraud charges over how the merger plan came together.

Backers of Digital World - the vast majority of whom are individual investors instead of Wall Street firms, many apparently Trump loyalists - seem undaunted.

"This is putting your money where your mouth is for free speech, to save your country, potentially losing it all," Chad Nedohin, a deal supporter, said recently on his show DWAC Live, on the video platform Rumble.

If the purchase is approved, which is expected, shares will start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker DJT.

The deal is unlikely to immediately resolve Mr Trump's most pressing financial issues, such as his New York fraud penalty.

The former president is barred from selling his shares for at least six months - though the new company could grant him an exemption.

Mr Trump could try to get a loan, backed by the value of the shares. But in this case, analysts said a bank would probably lend him significantly less than the shares are worth on paper, given the potential risks of the business.

That hasn't stopped some of his supporters hoping their backing will help.

Mr Nedohin, who identifies himself on his website as a Canadian "worship leader" and goes by Captain DWAC on Truth Social, declined to be interviewed.

But on his show this week he urged investors to approve the deal, speculating it could help the former president in his legal battles.

"If the merger is complete Friday at 10am and Trump all of a sudden has 120 million shares of DJT that's worth three, four, five $10bn, who knows? He could easily leverage that to get a loan," he said.

The risk that Digital World shareholders will lose money on their investment is significant, according to analysts.

Shares in the company are currently trading at nearly $43 apiece.

That's down from the highs it reached after the plans to purchase Trump Media were announced.

But it still implies Trump Media has a value of more than $5bn, which is a lot given it brought in just $3.3m in revenue in the first nine months of last year and lost nearly $50m.

The merger will provide an influx of more than $200m in cash to Trump Media, which it could use for growth and expansion.

But for now Truth Social, which launched to the general public in 2022, branding itself as an alternative to major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, remains small.

It claims about 8.9 million sign-ups and in regulatory filings Trump Media warns prospective investors that it does not track metrics like user growth or engagement that could give them a sense of its operations. And it says it has little intention of doing so.

Outside firms estimate Truth Social received about 5 million visits in February. By comparison, Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, and recently valued by one investor at about $14bn, received more than 100 million.

Analysts said Digital World was a prime example of a "meme stock", in which the share price is divorced from a company's fundamentals - and near-destined to fall, eventually.

"With Trump Media, I expect that it will collapse but whether it's going to occur a week from now or two years from now and how rapidly ... those things are really difficult to predict," said University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter, who tracks public listings.

Marco Iachini, senior vice-president of research at Vanda Securities, said individual investors piled into Digital World stock after the Trump deal was announced, and again in January, after he won the Iowa primary.

This week, he said there's been less activity, a sign that professional firms may be the ones driving the trading.

Whatever is motivating buyers, Mr Trump, whose main contributions to Trump Media have been his name and posts on the platform, appears poised to be the top beneficiary.

"It's an enormous transfer of value from [investors]... to Trump, which stands to be extremely lucrative for him," says Michael Ohlrogge, a law professor at New York University who has studied listings of companies such as Trump Media.