How many times does the United States have to veto a misguided UN Security Council resolution on the Israel/Hamas war until the other countries on the council understand that Hamas must be condemned by name, the fighting should stop and all the Israeli hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 have to be released?

The answer is at least three, as this week U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield correctly cast another U.S. veto on the war, following ones in October and December. The problem with this current resolution, offered by Algeria, is that again Hamas went blameless and there was no causation between a pause in the combat and freedom for the hostages.

Thomas-Greenfield says that she is working on a draft resolution to do just that, but it faces a veto threat by the peace loving Chinese and Russians, who jointly vetoed an October resolution because it was too harsh on the murderers and rapists of Hamas.

Beijing and Moscow are striving to sow as much discord as they can while Washington is trying to achieve a ceasefire and the return of the hostages. American diplomacy, working with Qatar and Egypt, succeeded earlier and negotiations are still underway.

War is horrible and Hamas started this war, bringing death and destruction to the people of Israel, which has brought death and destruction to the Gaza Strip as the cowards of Hamas hide among the innocent Palestinian civilians. Hamas has had thousands of its terrorists killed, but along with those dead terrorists, there have been too many Palestinian civilians killed and wounded.

While Hamas doesn’t care about the Palestinian civilians, as they see every death as another martyr in their holy war to annihilate the Jews, they do want the fighting to stop before all of the terrorists and the ring leaders have been taken out. So how to make sure that every hostage is released when the guns go silent? That is what Thomas-Greenfield is seeking.

Time is short. The last of Hamas (and likely the remaining hostages) are in Rafah in the southern corner of Gaza, with the IDF poised to enter the city, swollen with refugees who fled the fighting to the north. It could be a humanitarian nightmare on top of the other humanitarian nightmares of this war, and the U.S. is trying to find a way to avoid the potential catastrophe of the Israeli army hunting for desperate Hamas fighters amid the innocents.

But the Algeria plan would not work. Hamas would use the quieting of the fighting to retrench and rearm, extending the war instead of ending it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has in mind the March 10 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That date is just 2½ weeks away, adding to the pressure on all sides, in the Middle East and in East Midtown at the UN headquarters.

The best outcome would be for Hamas to immediately surrender all remaining Israeli hostages and leave Gaza. The terrorists’ 17-year reign over Gaza ended in disaster for Palestinians, as well as for death for Israelis. Instead of freedom, prosperity and liberty, they brought on a war which has ruined the lives of everyone in the Gaza Strip.

The long-suffering Palestinians must be freed from Hamas.