The forum resumes its tenth special emergency session on Thursday after more than 20 days of blockade in Gaza and increasing violence and civilian casualties.
Despite the complexity of the context, the Security Council was unable to reach a consensus among its 15 members to issue a joint resolution.
As an alternative, more than a dozen member countries of the UN have requested an emergency meeting of the General Assembly, where a resolution presented by Jordan on behalf of the group of Arab States will be analyzed.
The text calls for an immediate ceasefire while demanding that Israel withdraw the evacuation order from northern Gaza.
In addition, it demanded the supply of essential goods to the Strip and recognized “the importance of avoiding further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region.”
The forum’s 193 member states can vote on the proposal, which, while not legal, carries significant political weight.
Speaking the other day, during the opening of the session, the president of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis, called for an end to the violence and requested a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza.
The solution is to avoid bloodshed, the release of hostages, and the opening of humanitarian corridors to bring supplies to the enclave, the representative insisted.
Francis recalled the importance of creating two states to end the conflict.
“Once again, we meet in the midst of the worst escalation of violence and hatred in the Middle East in decades.”
For his part, the permanent ambassador of Palestine to the UN, Riyad Mansour, questioned the lack of clarity in asking for a cease-fire in Gaza when a thousand Palestinians die every day and 70 percent of the victims are women and children.
The complaint, after the death of a thousand Israelis, does not show the same anger as the massacre of a thousand Palestinians in one day, he criticized.
“We gather here while Palestinians in Gaza are under bombs, while families are being killed, while hospitals are paralyzed, while neighborhoods are being destroyed, and while people are fleeing from one place to another without knowing it’s a safe place to go,” he said.
