Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, told Associated Press on Sunday 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.
After four failures, the Security Council on November 15 adopted its first resolution after the outbreak of the 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.
UN steps up Gaza ceasefire calls with strongest move since 1971
UN steps up Gaza ceasefire calls with strongest move since 1971
That vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining.
The US and UK said they abstained because the resolution did not condemn Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 240 abducted, and Russia because of its failure to demand a humanitarian ceasefire, which Israel and the United States oppose.
As the death toll in Gaza has mounted during Israel’s campaign to obliterate Hamas, calls for a ceasefire have escalated, and on Friday the US was isolated in its support for Israel in the Security Council, where the vote was 13-1 with the United Kingdom abstaining.
The Security Council meeting and vote last Friday were a response to a letter from UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres, who invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, which enables a UN chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security.
He warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged the council to demand a humanitarian ceasefire.
Guterres said he raised Article 99 – which hadn’t been used at the UN since 1971 – because “there is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza”.
The UN anticipates this would result in “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” he warned.
Gaza is at “a breaking point” and desperate people are at serious risk of starvation, Guterres said, stressing that Hamas’ brutality against Israelis on October 7 “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
Like the Security Council resolution, the draft General Assembly resolution makes no mention of Hamas or the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Palestinians starve as Gaza war rages amid fears of exodus into Egypt
Palestinians starve as Gaza war rages amid fears of exodus into Egypt
It expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population” and says Palestinian and Israeli people must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.
In addition to an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the draft demands that all parties comply with international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians”, and calls for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access”.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse