UNGA vote demands ceasefire, denounces Israel’s UNRWA restrictions

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday to demand an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the immediate release of all hostages.

The ceasefire demand in the resolution - adopted with 158 votes in favor in the 193-member assembly - was expressed in more urgent language than one urging an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza that the body "called for" in October 2023, then "demanded" in December 2023.

Later on Thursday afternoon, Hamas responded to the vote, saying that it "urges the international community" to compel Israel to agree to a ceasefire. 

The terror group said it welcomes the "overwhelming passing of a resolution by the UN General Assembly, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, enabling the civilian population there to have immediate access to basic services and humanitarian aid, and rejecting any attempt to starve the Palestinians."

General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry political weight, reflecting a global view of the war. The United States, Israel, and seven other countries voted against the ceasefire resolution, while 13 countries abstained.

The world body also threw its support behind the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, adopting a second resolution with 159 votes in favor to deplore a new Israeli law that will ban UNRWA's operations in Israel from late January.

UN demands Israel respects UNRWA's mandate

It demanded that Israel respect UNRWA's mandate and "enable its operations to proceed without impediment or restriction." The US, Israel, and seven other countries voted no, while 11 countries abstained.

"The messages we send to the world through these resolutions matter. And both of these resolutions have significant problems," Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the assembly.

"One rewards Hamas and downplays the need to release the hostages, and the other denigrates Israel without providing a path forward to increasing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians," he said.

Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon last week accused the UN of having "an obsession with vilifying Israel," while Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour described Gaza as the "open, painful wound for the human family."

'Hunger despair, and death'

Israel says UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza. The UN has said nine UNRWA staff may have been involved and have been fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed by Israel - was also found to have had an UNRWA job.

"By voting for these resolutions, you are not voting to protect humanitarian values, but to protect an organization that has become a haven for terror," Danon told the assembly on Wednesday before the vote.

UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel. The UN has repeatedly said there is no alternative to UNRWA, which provides aid, health, and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

"Gaza doesn't exist anymore. It is destroyed. Palestinians are facing hunger, despair, and death," Slovenia's UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar told the assembly. "There is no reason for this war to continue. We need a ceasefire now. We need to bring hostages home now."

The war in the Palestinian enclave began after Hamas gunmen, on Oct. 7, 2023, stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza.

Since then, Israel's military has leveled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 44,800 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.