On Tuesday evening, the UN General Assembly, with its 193 members, voted on a new resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. 153 countries voted for the proposal. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, among others, have now also backed the resolution, together with Norway. The USA, Israel, Austria, and a total of ten countries voted against. 23 abstained from voting. 153 out of 193 is far more than the votes needed for the resolution to be adopted. The resolution, on the other hand, is not legally binding, as Security Council resolutions are. Voting overview for the UN General Assembly’s vote on a cease-fire in Gaza. Photo: Screenshot news / UN Despite the USA’s veto last Friday in the Security Council, Arab countries forced a new vote. There was far greater support for the proposal now than at the previous vote on the matter, on 27 October. Then 121 countries voted in favor of the proposal. Norway was the only Nordic country among those who voted in favor. Austria came up with a counter-proposal, supported by the United States and a dozen countries, which called for the General Assembly to condemn Hamas and request the release of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip. The UN General Assembly gathered to vote on a ceasefire in the Middle East. Photo: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO / AFP Moved assembly president It was a moved president of the general assembly, Dennis Francis from Trinidad and Tobago, who opened the session. – The facts are clear. The violence must end. It must. I will therefore use my voice to call for a truce. We have only one priority, and that is to save lives, said Francis. He believes, like many others, that a ceasefire is the only way to a lasting peace in the Middle East. – How can we hear each other talking over the deafening sound of bombs? asked the president. Israel’s representative shows the telephone number of Hamas’s Gaza office in the UN General Assembly. Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP Israel believes cease-fires are being broken by “Hamas-Nazis” Israel’s representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, used strong words in his criticism of the proposal. – On October 6, there was a truce, and it was broken, not by Israel, but by Hamas Nazis who raped women and slaughtered babies. December 1 was also a ceasefire, which was again broken by Hamas, Erdan said. It has not been proven that it was Hamas that first broke the ceasefire on 1 December. Hamas believes Israel broke the ceasefire first. Erdan believes the ceasefire proposal is “hypocritical”, because it does not mention Hamas. He urged calling Hamas’ office in Gaza if they wanted a ceasefire. WARNING: UN Secretary-General António Guterres has previously warned that the war in Gaza could potentially threaten international peace and security. Photo: CAITLIN OCHS / Reuters Apocalyptic Over 18,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip after over two months of war between Israel and Hamas. 7,700 of them are children. This is shown by figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza. According to the UN, the Israeli attacks have forced more than 1.9 million Palestinians to flee in Gaza and the situation is precarious. More than half of the inhabitants are starving, the material damage is enormous and aid organizations describe the conditions as apocalyptic. Palestinians search for survivors after Israeli bomb attacks on the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 12, 2023. Photo: Adel Hana / AP On Monday evening, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that the devastation in Gaza is worse than the devastation in Germany during World War II. – The destruction of buildings in Gaza is even greater than the destruction inflicted on German cities during the Second World War, proportionally speaking, said the EU summit after the meeting with EU foreign ministers. Facts about the victims of the war between Israel and Hamas Since 7 October, more than 19,700 people have been killed in Gaza, Israel and the occupied West Bank. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 18,205 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, among them over 7,700 children and 5,100 women. Several thousand are missing and are feared to be buried under the ruins of bombed buildings. Around 49,645 are injured. At least 63 journalists and media workers and 130 UN employees have been killed in the war. At least 267 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, at least 69 of them children. Over 3,400 have been injured in such attacks. At least 1,291 people have been killed and around 5,500 wounded on the Israeli side since 7 October. Among those killed are 827 civilians, 36 of them children, 405 soldiers and 59 police officers. At least 100 of the soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army leadership claims to have killed around 7,000 Palestinian militants during the war. According to Israel, up to 1,500 of them were killed during the attack on 7 October. Over 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip, where over 2.2 million people live. About. 250,000 Israelis have been evacuated from cities and kibbutzim near the border with Gaza, as well as from villages near the border with Lebanon. Hamas and the Islamic Holy War (Jihad) took close to 250 Israeli and foreign hostages during the October 7 attack. 108 have since been released, 137 remain. Several hostages are said to have been killed in Israeli attacks. Source: NTB/UN Office of Emergency Relief/Palestinian Health Authorities/Haaretz/CNN/The Times of Israel Updated 12 December 2023 Special Resolution It is Article 377 of the UN Treaty that was voted on. The article allows the UN body to take action when there is an indication that the UN Security Council may have failed to “exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”. It is simply a safety valve to avoid paralysis of action by the Security Council. Article 377 can even ask member states to use military force to stop the war in the Middle East. Of the times UN Article 377 has been invoked since 1955, Israel has been involved in five of the cases: The Suez Crisis in 1956 The Six-Day War and the annexation of Jerusalem in 1967 The Palestine issue in 1980 The conflict over the Golan Heights in 1982 The Palestine issue in 1997 The United States suspended the ceasefire in Security Council Last Friday, the Security Council voted to demand an immediate ceasefire. There, the US vetoed a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. 13 out of 15 countries voted for the proposal. Apart from the US no, the UK abstained. – Tragic, was the conclusion from Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap). Tuesday’s text is largely identical to last week’s resolution. Resolutions adopted in the general assembly are not binding, as Security Council resolutions are. Although the General Assembly cannot therefore introduce punitive measures when orders are not complied with, the resolutions are nevertheless a clear expression of the world community’s view and are therefore given a certain political weight. The General Assembly also adopted a resolution in October demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and Norway was among the 121 countries that voted for this.
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– The facts are clear. The violence must end – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
