The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in besieged Gaza — a call the paralysed Security Council has so far failed to make, piling pressure on Israel and its ally the US.
The body, which includes all 193 UN member nations, voted 153 in favour of the resolution, exceeding the 140 or so countries that have routinely backed resolutions condemning Russia for its assault on Ukraine.
Ten countries, including the United States and Israel, voted against it, while 23 abstained.
The Palestinian envoy to the UN called the General Assembly ceasefire resolution “historic”.
An attempt by the United States to amend the text to include a rejection and condemnation of “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas … and the taking of hostages” and a bid by Austria to add that the captives were being held by Hamas both failed to get the two-thirds majority support needed to pass.
Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram argued against both the proposed amendments to name Hamas, saying that any blame “has to be placed on both parties, especially on Israel.”
“When you deny people freedom and dignity, when you humiliate and trap them in an open-air prison, where you kill them as if they were beasts – they become very angry and they do to others what was done to them,” he told the General Assembly.
