The meeting responded to the request of more than a dozen member countries, including Azerbaijan, Jordan and Mauritania, the respective presidents of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab Group and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Planned for two days, the call announced the participation of at least a hundred speakers.
The forum will continue the tenth special emergency session, which was posted in 2018 by the General Assembly, in accordance with resolution ES-10/20 of 13 June 2018, entitled Protection of the Palestinian civilian population.
Ahead of the meeting, the Jordanian delegation circulated a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and rejecting any attempt to forcibly relocate civilians.
The plenary session was held a day after two other drafts failed in the Security Council, still unable to gather consensus among member states as tensions and humanitarian needs increased.
Two more resolutions presented by Russia and the United States stalled on Wednesday although the main difference between the two was in the request for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and a “humanitarian pause” for the safe delivery of aid. of civilians.
Russia and China have vetoed the US-sponsored project, considering it an evasion of a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s proposal did not gather the nine votes needed for its approval.
The permanent representative of Russia at the UN, Vassily Nebenzya, described the lack of an agreement within the Council with the aim of sending a collective signal to reduce tensions as very regrettable.
The bloodshed continues, the number of civilian victims is in the thousands and millions of displaced people, he lamented.
For his part, the Chinese ambassador to the organization, Zhang Jun, added that the Washington text ignores the fundamental causes of the current crisis in Gaza, which does not mention the Israeli blockade or the order to evacuate civilians in south
The US draft would completely end the possibility of a long-term two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he insisted.
The ceasefire is not just a diplomatic term, he added, it is a matter of life and death for many civilians.
Both texts condemned the Hamas attack against Israeli civilians on October 7 while calling for measures to address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
However, the main differences are also a specific reference to the US proposal on Israel’s right to self-defense, and a call in the Russian draft for the immediate cancellation of Israeli forces in the order to evacuate civilians going south of the enclave.
This Thursday and Friday meeting of the General Assembly may lead to collective action after a total of four proposed resolutions failed in the Council since the conflict broke out.
“In the case of an ongoing conflict, that action may include helping to stop the bloodshed, establishing a ceasefire and alleviating the suffering of civilians on the ground,” according to the UN website.
