The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN\u2019s Security Council. <\/p>\n
A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly\u2019s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted against and 23 abstained. <\/p>\n
While a General Assembly vote is politically significant and seen as wielding moral weight, it is nonbinding, unlike a Security Council resolution. The US last week vetoed a ceasefire resolution in the smaller Security Council, which had been approved by a majority of the powerful 15-member body. <\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s brief resolution calls for a ceasefire, for all parties to comply with international law, and for humanitarian access to hostages as well as their \u201cimmediate and unconditional\u201d release. It notably contains stronger language than an October vote in the assembly that had called for a \u201csustained humanitarian truce.\u201d <\/p>\n
The vote, hailed as \u201chistoric\u201d by Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, comes as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, and as medics and aid groups sound alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza. More than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since fighting broke out, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Monday. <\/p>\n
The resolution \u201cdoes not \u2018call for\u2019 or \u2018urges\u2019 \u2013 it demands, and we will not rest until we see compliance of Israel with this demand,\u201d Mansour said. A ceasefire is necessary to move the \u201cmassive\u201d amounts of humanitarian assistance needed by Gaza\u2019s besieged civilian population, he added. <\/p>\n
Israel has said it will not stop its military campaign until it eradicates Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza, following its October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. Over 100 hostages are thought to remain in captivity in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote, Israel\u2019s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the resolution as a \u201cdisgraceful\u201d attempt to bind Israel\u2019s hands, warning that \u201ccontinuing Israel\u2019s operation in Gaza is the only way any hostages will be released.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel has rejected previous calls for a ceasefire, though it agreed to a seven-day truce for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Israel voted against Tuesday\u2019s resolution along with the US, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia and Nauru. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have\u00a0one singular priority \u2013 only one \u2013 to save lives,\u201d said General Assembly President Dennis Francis, opening the emergency session on Tuesday afternoon, warning that civilians in Gaza have nowhere safe to shelter from the fighting and aerial bombardment. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven war has rules, and it is imperative that we prevent any deviation from these principles and values \u2013 the validity of which resides in their universal application,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
With vital infrastructure blasted to rubble and limited access to water, medicine and food, more Gaza civilians may end up\u00a0dying of diseases than from bombs and missiles, UN officials have warned. Hunger is a growing issue in the enclave. <\/p>\n
Addressing the assembly, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Washington does \u201cagree that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire\u2026and that civilians must be protected with international humanitarian law,\u201d but urged nations to support an amendment to the resolution condemning Hamas, which did not pass. <\/p>\n
\u201dA ceasefire right now would be temporary at best, and dangerous at worst,\u201d she said. \u201cDangerous to Israelis, who would be subject to relentless attacks, and also dangerous to Palestinians who deserve the chance to build a better future for themselves free from a group that hides behind innocent civilians.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a break with its southern neighbor, Canada cast its vote in support of the resolution, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issuing a joint statement with the leaders of Australia and New Zealand in support of \u201curgent international efforts towards a sustainable\u00a0ceasefire.\u201d <\/p>\n
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australian officials had been engaging with Canadian officials for some time on the issue, and more recently with New Zealand\u2019s new government. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that it\u2019s important that very close allies and likeminded countries speak together in support of the position that we\u2019ve articulated,\u201d Wong told reporters Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are democracies, and we expect of ourselves a high standard, and we expect that we will all work to comply with international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilian life,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Canadian ambassador to the UN Bob Rae called on Hamas to lay down its weapons and stop using civilians as \u201chuman shields.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of Palestinian civilians.\u201d <\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s representative Mathu Joyini meanwhile invoked her country\u2019s \u201cown painful past experience of a system of apartheid\u201d to impress on fellow states the need to \u201ctake action in accordance with international law.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s vote, she said, \u201cpresents an opportunity for us to illustrate that the organization that was created to give hope for peace is not tone-deaf to the suffering of the most vulnerable.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a short statement, Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, welcomed the resolution and condemned what he termed as a \u201cwar of genocide and ethnic cleansing\u201d against the Palestinian people. <\/p>\n\n
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, in a rebuke to the United States which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls in the UN\u2019s Security Council. A majority of 153 nations voted for the ceasefire resolution in the General Assembly\u2019s emergency special session Tuesday, while 10 voted <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}