The United Nations General Assembly will vote – today, Tuesday – on an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons in the more than two-month-long Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, after the United States used its veto against a resolution in this regard in the Security Council.
No country has veto power in the 193-member General Assembly, which is scheduled to vote on a draft similar to the wording of the resolution that was thwarted by the United States in the 15-member Security Council last week.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but they carry political weight and reflect global views on the war in the Gaza Strip.
The General Assembly vote coincides with the visit of 12 Security Council envoys to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, which is the only place where limited humanitarian aid and fuel supplies cross into Gaza.
The United States did not send a representative on the visit.
“With each step, the United States appears more isolated from the mainstream of opinion at the United Nations,” said Richard Gowan, director of the United Nations International Crisis Group.
The United States and Israel oppose the ceasefire because they believe it will only benefit the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and Washington instead supports a truce to protect civilians and allow the release of detainees.
Last October, the General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities in a resolution that was adopted by a majority of 121 votes in favor and 14 opposed, including the United States, with 44 abstentions.
Some diplomats and observers expect Tuesday’s vote to receive greater support.
die from hunger
Joan said that the situation is different than it was last October, and the length and intensity of the Israeli operations in Gaza have made many United Nations members convinced that a ceasefire is necessary.
The draft General Assembly resolution also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees and for the warring parties to comply with international law, specifically with regard to the protection of civilians.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes, and the United Nations has issued dire warnings about the humanitarian situation in the besieged coastal enclave, saying hundreds of thousands of people are starving.
The United Nations World Food Program said that half the population in Gaza is starving.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of martyrs exceeded 18,000, in addition to more than 49,000 wounded, most of them children and women, and that the war caused massive destruction to the infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.
