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The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and expressed its support for the work of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The assembly on Wednesday approved a resolution calling for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which was passed by 158 votes in favor of the 193-member assembly to nine votes against and 13 abstentions.
With 159 votes in favor, nine against and 11 abstentions, a second resolution expressing support for UNRWA and deploring a new Israeli law that would ban the UN agency’s operations in Israel was passed.
This resolution demands that Israel respect UNRWA’s mandate and calls on the Israeli government “to comply with its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA, and uphold its responsibility to allow and facilitate full humanitarian assistance, fast, safe and unhindered in all its forms within and throughout the Gaza Strip”.
Both votes capped two days of speeches at the UN where speaker after speaker called for an end to Israel’s 14-month war on Palestinian territory that has killed at least 44,805 people, mostly Palestinian women and children, and injured 106,257.
“Gaza no longer exists,” Slovenia’s UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar told the General Assembly meeting. “It is destroyed. Civilians face hunger, despair and death,” he said.
“There is no reason for this war to continue. We need a ceasefire now. We need to bring the hostages home now,” he added.
Algeria’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Nacim Gaouaoui, addressed the world’s inability to stop the war in Gaza: “The price of silence and failure in the face of the Palestinian tragedy is a very high price, and it will be heavier tomorrow.”
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said “the message is clear with these two resolutions.”
“Number one, UNRWA must be protected and its mandate must be protected and strengthened. Of course, Israel is trying to destroy UNRWA. They have made that very clear for many months,” Elizondo said.
“And the second message it sends is that the overwhelming majority of the world is calling, again, for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.
Israel and the US vote against the UN resolution
Israel and its staunchest ally, the United States, were in a small minority of countries and their representatives speaking and voting against UN resolutions.
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood reiterated Washington’s opposition to the ceasefire resolution ahead of the vote and criticized the Palestinians for failing to mention again the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel, which killed some 1,139 people and saw more than 200 Israelis taken prisoner. captive in Gaza.
“At a time when Hamas feels isolated due to the cease-fire in Lebanon, the draft resolution on a cease-fire in Gaza risks sending a dangerous message to Hamas that there is no need to negotiate or release the hostages,” he said.
Before the UN vote, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, accused supporters of the resolutions of complicity with Hamas.
“By calling for a ceasefire today without addressing the hostages, this assembly will once again side with those who weaponize human suffering,” Danon said.
While UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding, General Assembly resolutions are not, even though they reflect world opinion.
The Palestinians and their supporters came to the General Assembly after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution on November 20 demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The language of the cease-fire resolution adopted by the assembly is the same as the text of the vetoed resolution of the Security Council, and demands “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire that is respected by all parties”, while reiterating a “demand for an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages”.
Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week during the first day of debate at the assembly’s special session on the issue that Gaza is “the bleeding heart of Palestine”.
“The images of our children burning in tents, without food in their bellies, without hope and without a horizon for the future, and having endured pain and loss for more than a year, should haunt the conscience of the world and act quickly to end this nightmare,” Mansour said.
