The U.N.
General Assembly extremely approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N.
agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has relocated to ban.The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9, with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions in assistance of the agency known as UNRWA.The votes culminated 2 days of speeches extremely requiring an end to the 14-month war in between Israel and the militant Hamas group and demanding access throughout Gaza to attend to the growing humanitarian catastrophe.Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a small minority speaking and voting against the resolutions.
Other opposing both resolutions included Argentina, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga.While Security Council resolutions are lawfully binding, General Assembly resolutions are not, though they do show world viewpoint.
There are no vetoes in the assembly.The Palestinians and their advocates went to the General Assembly after the U.S.
vetoed a Security Council resolution on Nov.
20 demanding an instant Gaza ceasefire.
It was supported by the councils 14 other members but the U.S.
objected that it was not linked to an instant release of hostages taken by Hamas militants during their attack on Israel on Oct.
7, 2023, which set off the war.The Palestinian U.N.
Ambassador Riyad Mansour revealed gratitude for the overwhelming assistance for both resolutions Wednesday, saying the votes show the resolve and the decision of the international community.We will keep knocking on the doors of the Security Council and the General Assembly till we see an instant and genuine ceasefire put in location and up until we see humanitarian assistance being dispersed at scale in all corners of the Gaza Strip, he said.The language of the resolution embraced by the assembly on a ceasefire mirrors the text of the vetoed council resolution.
It demands an immediate, genuine and irreversible cease-fire to be appreciated by all celebrations, while also restating a demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.That language is much more powerful than General Assembly resolutions embraced on Oct.
27, 2023 3 weeks after the Hamas attack calling for an immediate and continual humanitarian truce resulting in a cessation of hostilities and on Dec.
12, 2023, requiring an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.The resolution embraced Wednesday also marked the first time Germany and Italy, who stayed away last December, enacted favor of a Gaza ceasefire.
Their support left the United States as the only member of the Group of 7 significant industrialized countries still opposed.On the humanitarian front, the resolution turns down any effort to starve Palestinians and demands instant access to civilians to offer aid indispensable to their survival.The second resolution backs the required of UNRWA, which was developed by the General Assembly in 1949.
It deplores laws embraced by Israels parliament on Oct.
28 prohibiting UNRWAs activities in the Palestinian territories, a procedure to take effect in 90 days.It reiterates U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres statements that UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian operations in Gaza and no company can replace it.
And it declares the need for UNRWAs continued unimpeded operation.The resolution contacts the Israeli federal government to comply with its international responsibilities, regard the opportunities and immunities of UNRWA and promote its duty to help with the unhindered shipment of help humanitarian assistance throughout the whole Gaza Strip.Israel declares that around a dozen of UNRWAs 13,000 workers in Gaza participated in Hamas attacks on Israel that precipitated the war.
It just recently offered the U.N.
with over 100 names of UNRWA staff it implicates of having militant ties.U.S.
deputy U.N.
ambassador Robert Wood repeated Americas opposition to the ceasefire resolution ahead of Wednesdays vote and slammed the Palestinians for once again failing to discuss Hamas Oct.
7, 2023, attack on Israel.At a time when Hamas is feeling separated due to the ceasefire in Lebanon, the draft resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza dangers sending out a hazardous message to Hamas that theres no need to negotiate or launch the hostages, he said.The Hamas attack eliminated about 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and saw another 250 abducted as hostages.
Gaza militants have not returned around 100 hostages, a 3rd of them thought to be dead, and ceasefire efforts have ground to a halt.Israels retaliatory offensive has actually eliminated over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry.
It says females and kids make up more than half the dead but does not compare fighters and civilians in its count.Wood said the U.S.
will continue to look for a diplomatic option to the war and called UNRWA a crucial lifeline to the Palestinian individuals.
He said the UNRWA resolution has major defects since it fails to develop a path to restore trust between the U.N.
firm and Israel in spite of U.S.
efforts and a U.S.
proposal.Just before the vote, Israels U.N.
Ambassador Danny Danon implicated the resolutions supporters of complicity with Hamas, which he stated has actually hopelessly infiltrated UNRWA, and knocked their failure to link a ceasefire to the release of the hostages.By demanding a ceasefire today without resolving the hostages, this assembly will once again side with those who weaponize human suffering, Danon said.
It will send a message that the lives of innocent Israelis, including kids, are unworthy your consideration.This is not diplomacy, he stressed.
It is appeasement.
It is making it possible for terror and abandoning the innocent.Slovenias U.N.
Ambassador Samuel bogar, showing the views of many speakers, indicated the 10s of thousands killed in Gaza.Gaza doesnt exist any longer, he informed the assembly Wednesday.
It is destroyed.
Civilians are facing appetite, despair and death.Source: AP-- Agencies