Ceasefire calls have been made numerous times amid the war in Gaza, in a bid to bring a halt to Israel’s deadly war in the enclave [Getty/file photo]
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel.
The resolution – adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions – urges “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” – wording similar to a text vetoed by Washington in the Security Council last month.
At that time, Washington used its veto power on the Council – as it has before – to protect its ally Israel, which has been waging a war in the Gaza Strip for over a year, which has killed at least 44,805 Palestinians as of Wednesday.
It has insisted on the idea of making a ceasefire conditional on the release of all captives in Gaza, saying otherwise that Hamas has no incentive to free those in captivity.
Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood repeated that position on Wednesday, saying it would be “shameful and wrong” to adopt the text.
Ahead of the vote, Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon said: “The resolutions before the assembly today are beyond logic. (…) The vote today is not a vote for compassion. It is a vote for complicity.”
The General Assembly often finds itself taking up measures that cannot get through the Security Council, which has been largely paralysed on hot-button issues such as Gaza and Ukraine due to internal politics, and this time is no different.
The resolution, which is non-binding, demands “immediate access” to widespread humanitarian aid for the citizens of Gaza, especially in the besieged north of the territory, which has been under a brutal siege for over two months.
Dozens of representatives of UN member states addressed the Assembly before the vote to offer their support to the Palestinians.
“Gaza doesn’t exist anymore. It is destroyed,” said Slovenia’s UN envoy Samuel Zbogar. “History is the harshest critic of inaction.”
‘Price of silence’
That criticism was echoed by Algeria’s deputy UN ambassador Nacim Gaouaoui, who said: “The price of silence and failure in the face of the Palestinian tragedy is a very heavy price, and it will be heavier tomorrow.”
“Gaza today is the bleeding heart of Palestine,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week during the first day of debate in the Assembly’s special session on the issue.
“The images of our children burning in tents, with no food in their bellies and no hopes and no horizon for the future, and after having endured pain and loss for more than a year, should haunt the conscience of the world and prompt action to end this nightmare,” he said, calling for an end to the “impunity.”
After Wednesday’s vote, he said “we will keep knocking on the doors of the Security Council and the General Assembly until we see an immediate and unconditional ceasefire put in place.”
The Gaza resolution calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to present “proposals on how the United Nations could help to advance accountability” by using existing mechanisms or creating new ones based on past experience.
The Assembly, for example, created an international mechanism to gather evidence of crimes committed in Syria starting from the outbreak of civil war in 2011.
A second resolution calling on Israel to respect the mandate of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and allow it to continue its operations was passed Wednesday by a vote of 159-9 with 11 abstentions.
Israel has voted to ban the organisation starting January 28, after accusing some UNRWA employees of taking part in Hamas’s devastating attack.