New York, Oct. 27, (dpa/GNA) – The UN General Assembly discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip at a special session on Thursday amid deadlock in the Security Council over the war.
The meeting began with speeches by the diplomatic representatives of Israel and the Palestinians.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also made a surprise appearance at the meeting. A total of 110 speakers were due to take the floor, the UN said, of whom only a dozen spoke on Thursday.
The meeting was set to resume at 10 am (1700 GMT) on Friday. A draft resolution submitted by Jordan will be voted on at the end of the meeting. It is doubtful that the text will be adopted because it calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and contains other points that Israel’s supporters do not agree with.
However, observers also expect that some countries from the Global South could use the meeting and the vote to distance themselves from Israel. UN General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but are considered symbolically important.
The session was also convened because the UN Security Council has so far been unable to agree on a resolution on Gaza with a humanitarian focus.
On Wednesday, the body failed to agree on two draft resolutions. That prompted Malta to announce that the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council would submit their own resolution.
Terrorists acting on behalf of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, massacred civilians in Israel on October 7. More than 1,400 people were killed when armed Hamas militants staged cross-border attacks.
Israel has responded with a bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip was over 7,000. The figure could not be independently verified.
GNA