NEW YORK: The UN General Assembly is set to meet at 3 pm (Midnight PST) in New York on Thursday in emergency session after the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution on June 4 that demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
The 193-member assembly is expected to vote on a humanitarian resolution put forward by 23 countries, including Pakistan, alongside Palestine, and led by Spain, which demands a ceasefire, strongly condemns the use of starvation as a weapon of warfare and calls for an end to Israel’s aid blockade.
Although Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they carry political and moral weight.
As starvation looms across the Strip, mass casualties continue to be reported of desperate civilians trying to access food at Israel and US-backed distribution sites.
The draft resolution is expected to be adopted by an overwhelming majority.
It demands unhindered aid access and “strongly condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians … of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supply and access”.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon wrote in a letter to UN member states, described the UNGA draft resolution as an “immensely flawed and harmful text”, urging countries not to take part in the session.
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