UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinians are hoping that a vote Tuesday in the UN General Assembly on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire will demonstrate widespread global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war, now in its third month.
After the United States vetoed a resolution in the Security Council on Friday demanding a humanitarian cease-fire, Arab and Islamic nations called for an emergency session of the 193-member General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon to vote on a resolution making the same demand.
Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding. But as UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Monday, the assembly’s messages “are also very important” and reflect world opinion.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, told that the defeated resolution in the Security Council was cosponsored by 103 countries, and he is hoping for more cosponsors and a high vote for the General Assembly resolution on Tuesday.
In the first UN response to the Gaza war, the General Assembly on Oct. 27 called for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. The vote was 120-14 with 45 abstentions.
After four failures, the Security Council on Nov. 15 adopted its first resolution after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians during Israel’s aerial and ground attacks.
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