Faith Nyasuguta
The UN General Assembly is set to meet on Thursday to discuss the conflict sparked by the attack by Hamas militants on Israel, the body’s president announced in a letter to member states.
So far, the Security Council has failed to agree on a resolution concerning the war, but a number of states — including Jordan on behalf of an Arab group of nations, Russia, Syria, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia — officially called on the General Assembly President Dennis Francis to schedule the meeting.
In the past week, the UN Security Council, regularly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, turned down a Russian draft resolution calling for a “humanitarian pause”.
Just five of the 15 member states had supported the text, which condemned all violence against civilians and all terrorist acts, but missed to mention the name Hamas, an unacceptable omission to the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
Following this, Washington vetoed a second resolution put forward by Brazil as the text missed to mention Israel’s right to defend itself.
While Russia and the United Kingdom abstained from the resolution, which also condemned the”heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas,” 12 out of 15 Council members voted in favour of that.
The United States was the only vote against, but as one of the body’s five permanent members its vote counts as a veto.
The Security Council will meet to discuss the issue ahead of the General Assembly’s gathering Thursday at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).
Last week, Israel worked through media and diplomatic channels to dispute accusations that it was responsible for the explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday.
Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the blast, but Israel asserted that it was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied involvement.
Several Arab countries, including regional allies that have established ties with Israel, have condemned Israel for the explosion. The rapid attribution of blame coincided with angry rallies across the region. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Iran also blamed Israel for the incident.
A planned mini-summit between Joe Biden, Arab states, and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was canceled due to the ongoing conflict. Gulf leaders, under pressure domestically, are inclined to blame Israel for the blast and view it as an excessive use of force in response to Hamas’ actions.
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