Palestine urges all States to comply with UNGA resolution
Oct 28, 2023
New York [US], October 28 : Welcoming the overwhelming support for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, calling for immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the State of Palestine has urged for compliance of this resolution.
Palestine has also affirmed the need to ensure accountability with this resolution in case of non-compliance.
The remarks came as the United Nations General Assembly on Friday (local time) adopted a resolution calling for an "immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce" between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The resolution made no specific mention of the Hamas terror attacks of October 7.
The Jordanian-led draft resolution was adopted by the General Assembly, with 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions. The 45 nations that abstained from voting on the resolution included Iceland, India, Panama, Lithuania and Greece.
"Today, here in the General Assembly, in the world's parliament, countries of principle & conscience, peace-loving nations stood up & proved that the int. community has not forsaken humanity (Cont.)," posted State of Palestine's Mission to the UN on X.
"The State of Palestine welcomes the overwhelming support for the General Assembly resolution calling for the protection of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip from Israel's onslaught and massacres and the unequivocal call for immediate humanitarian truce and unimpeded humanitarian assistance as well as the unambiguous rejection of any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian population," said the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in a statement.
"As the Israeli assault against the Palestinian people reaches a new peak of brutality, including a complete communications blackout, there is a solid international position rejecting Israel's unhinged aggression and its clear disregard for international humanitarian law and the lives of Palestinian civilians. This vote signals the commitment of a moral majority of the international community to uphold its obligations and the rejection of double standards and politicisation of international humanitarian law," the statement added.
The statement also appealed to Israel to comply with its obligations and heed the calls of the international community: "End its aggression, end its massacres, and end its mass killing of the Palestinian people".
The State of Palestine calls on all States to comply with this resolution and affirms the need to ensure accountability in with this resolution in case of non-compliance, it said.
Meanwhile, Israel slammed the UNGA resolution urging a humanitarian truce in Gaza and added that it is a dark day for the UN and mankind.
Gilad Erdan, Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, stressed that Israel will continue to defend itself and use every means at its disposal to accomplish this mission.
In his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly Emergency Special Session on the Israel-Hamas war, Erdan said, "The truth holds zero importance in this body. Today, the majority of the community has shown that it prefers to support the defence of Nazi terrorists rather than support the law-abiding state of Israel to defend its civilians. Anyone who is truly interested in preventing violence shouldn't vote for resolutions protecting terrorists.
"Whoever truly wants to prevent more violence should be calling on Hamas to lay down their arms, turn themselves in, and return all hostages. If this were to happen, the war would end immediately. This is a dark day for the UN and for mankind."
Speaking about Israel's counter-offensive against Hamas, Erdan said, "Israel will continue to defend itself. We will defend our future, our very existence, by reading the words of Hamas's, evil, so that it can never threaten anyone else again. Israel will use every means at our disposal to accomplish this mission. Israel will do what must be done to eradicate Hamas's capabilities and bring the hostages home and we will bring them home."
Criticising the UN for adopting the resolution, he said, "We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance. This organisation was founded in the wake of the Holocaust for the purpose of preventing atrocities. Yet the spectacle we just saw proves beyond a doubt that the UN is committed sadly tragically, not to preventing but ensuring further atrocities."
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinked reiterated a Two-State solution for the conflict. At UNGA, Blinken said, "We must redouble our collective efforts to build an enduring political solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The only road to lasting peace and security in the region is through two states for two peoples."
"Palestinians deserve equal measures of security, freedom, justice, opportunity and of dignity," Blinken said.