UN General Assembly passes resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza

New York: A resolution demanding an end to the conflict that has been going on in the Gaza Strip for the last 68 days and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire has been passed by the majority in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The United Nations has also said the kidnapped citizens should be released unconditionally. On the other hand, Israel has again levelled allegations against the UN, saying it had deliberately not mentioned the terrorist organization ‘Hamas’ in its submission. Israel’s Ambassador Gilad Erdan has also reprimanded the UN to put pressure on Hamas for a real ceasefire and contact the leader of this organization, Yahya Sinwar.

United Nations Secretary–General Antonio Guterres raised the demand for implementing ‘Article 99’ last week. According to this, Guterres informed about the immediate implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel and the US rejected this proposal from the head of the UN and accused Guterres of being on the side of Hamas. A total of 15 such members, five permanent and ten temporary, voted to implement this resolution in the UN Security Council. However, by using the right to veto, the US had ensured that the Security Council would not pass this proposal.

After this proposal came to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, 153 out of 193 member countries voted in favour. A total of 10 countries, including Israel and the US, voted against this resolution. These include the Czech Republic, Austria, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay. Apart from these, 23 countries remained neutral on this proposal. Before this vote, countries friendly to Israel, such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, had issued a joint statement criticizing the military action in the Gaza Strip.

Arab countries, including China, Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, welcomed this proposal. However, Israel has expressed great anger over this. Israeli Ambassador Erdan criticized this proposal as giving a clean chit to terrorist organizations like Hamas. Erdan claimed that this ceasefire would lead to the end of Hamas and would pose a threat to the security of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian civilians. ‘This ceasefire is only to protect Hamas, which is trying to destroy Israel and the Jews’, the Israeli ambassador alleged. Additionally, Erdan accused the UN of being a well-wisher of Hamas by saying that there is no mention of Hamas anywhere in this entire report.

Also, by making the phone number of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar public during the UN meeting, Erdan reprimanded the UN, saying they should ask for Sinwar if they wanted a ceasefire. We can consider the ceasefire only if Sinwar and Hamas lay down their arms and release the abducted civilians unconditionally.

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