UN General Assembly demands immediate ceasefire in Gaza Strip

The world body also gave its support to the UN humanitarian aid agency in Palestine, UNRWA, adopting a second resolution, with 159 votes in favor, to counter a new Israeli law that prohibits the agency from operating in Israeli territory from the end of January.

“The messages we send to the world through these resolutions are important. And both resolutions have significant problems,” US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the Assembly. The country voted against both.

“One of them rewards Hamas and minimizes the need to release the hostages, and the other offends Israel without providing a path to increase humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians,” he added.

Israel claims that UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the war in Gaza. The UN assumed that nine members of the agency may have been involved in the action and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon, killed by Israel, also had a job with the entity.