The UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, in an overwhelming vote Tuesday that highlighted much of the world’s desire to bring the bloody conflict to an end.
About three-quarters of the body’s members voted in favour of the non-binding resolution, underscoring the isolation of Israel and the US, which last week blocked a ceasefire resolution in the Security Council.
Resounding applause and cheers erupted after the vote was announced: 153 in favour, 10 against and 23 abstentions. The resolution required a two-thirds majority for passage.
“How many more thousands of lives must be lost before we do something?” Dennis Francis, a diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago currently serving as president of the General Assembly, said in an address to the chamber before the vote. “No more time is left. The carnage must stop.”
The resolution was put forth by the UN’s Arab Group and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which represents Arab and Muslim countries. Despite their support of the non-binding resolution, none of the 57 members of the Muslim organisation have offered Palestinians refugee status in their countries.
More than 15,000 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to local health officials, since Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group launched a terrorist attack on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage.
General Assembly resolutions are never legally binding, but they carry political weight and are a symbolic reflection of the wider perspective among the UN’s 193 members.
The countries that joined the US and Israel in rejecting the ceasefire resolution on Tuesday were Austria, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia, Paraguay and Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Among the countries that abstained were Britain, Hungary, South Sudan and Germany.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, criticised the UN and said that passing the resolution made the institution more irrelevant. He said that calls for a ceasefire aimed to “tie Israel’s hand and to continue Hamas’ reign of terror”. The Assembly convened the emergency session after the US vetoed a binding Security Council resolution for a ceasefire on Friday.
New York Times News Service
