UN General Assembly demands ceasefire in Gaza and backs UN agency helping Palestinian refugees

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban.

The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9, with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions in support of the agency known as UNRWA. The votes culminated two days of speeches overwhelmingly calling for an end to the 14-month war between Israel and the militant Hamas group.

Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a tiny minority speaking and voting against the resolutions.

While Security Council resolutions are legally binding, General Assembly resolutions are not, though they do reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly.

The Palestinians and their supporters went to the General Assembly after the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution on Nov. 20 demanding an immediate Gaza ceasefire. It was supported by the council’s 14 other members but the U.S. objected that it was not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas militants during their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war.

The language of the resolution adopted by the assembly is the same as the text of the vetoed resolution, demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties,” while also reiterating a “demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

The second resolution backs the mandate of UNRWA, which was established by the General Assembly in 1949.

It deplores laws adopted by Israel’s parliament on Oct. 28 banning UNRWA’s activities in the Palestinian territories, a measure to take effect in 90 days. And it reiterates U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ statements that UNRWA is “the backbone” of all humanitarian operations in Gaza and no organization can replace it.

Israel alleges that around a dozen of UNRWA’s 13,000 workers in Gaza participated in Hamas’ attacks on Israel that precipitated the war. It recently provided the U.N. with over 100 names of UNRWA staff it accuses of having militant ties.

The resolution adopted Wednesday calls on the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and uphold its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip.”

U.S. deputy U.N. ambassador Robert Wood reiterated America’s opposition to the ceasefire resolution ahead of Wednesday’s vote and criticized the Palestinians for again failing to mention Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

“At a time when Hamas is feeling isolated due to the ceasefire in Lebanon, the draft resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza risks sending a dangerous message to Hamas that there’s no need to negotiate or release the hostages,” he said.

The Hamas attack killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw another 250 abducted as hostages. Gaza militants have not returned around 100 hostages, a third of them believed to be dead, and ceasefire efforts have ground to a halt.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry. It says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

Wood said the U.S. will continue to seek a diplomatic solution to the war and called UNRWA “a critical lifeline to the Palestinian people.” But he said the UNRWA resolution has “serious flaws” because it fails to create a path to restore trust between the U.N. agency and Israel — despite U.S. efforts and a U.S. proposal.

Just before the vote, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon accused the resolutions’ supporters of complicity with Hamas, which he said has “hopelessly infiltrated” UNRWA, and denounced their failure to link a ceasefire to the release of the hostages.

“By demanding a ceasefire today without addressing the hostages, this assembly will once again side with those who weaponize human suffering,” Danon said. “It will send a message that the lives of innocent Israelis, including children, are not worth your consideration.”

“This is not diplomacy," he stressed. “It is appeasement. It is enabling terror and abandoning the innocent.”

At the opening of the assembly debate last Wednesday, the Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour accused Israel of mass killings, displacements, destruction and starvation — “a cruel war of atrocities against an entire civilian population.”

Mansour said the only way to stop the atrocities, free the hostages, “and to preserve the hope of a different future” is an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and support humanitarian efforts and prevent Israel’s attempt to eliminate UNRWA.

Slovenia’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Žbogar, reflecting the views of many speakers, pointed to the tens of thousands killed in Gaza.

“Gaza doesn’t exist anymore,” he told the assembly Wednesday. “It is destroyed. Civilians are facing hunger, despair and death.”