New Delhi: Despite the UN General Assembly (UNGA) voting overwhelmingly in favour of a humanitarian truce in Gaza, Israel, on the contrary, expanded its ground operation against Hamas in the narrow strip of land on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
According to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), fighter jets struck some 450 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day. The targets included Hamas command centres, observation posts, and anti-tank guided missile launch positions. The military also expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip overnight, with additional forces entering, Israeli media reported.
This comes after as many as 120 countries voted in favour of a resolution titled “Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations” in the UNGA on Friday. While 14 member states, including Israel and the US, voted against it, 45 others, including India, abstained from voting.
In the resolution, the UNGA also demanded that all parties “immediately and fully comply” with obligations under international humanitarian and human rights laws, “particularly regarding the protection of civilians and civilian objects”. It also urged the protection of humanitarian personnel, persons hors de combat, and humanitarian facilities and assets, and to enable and facilitate humanitarian access for essential supplies and services to reach all civilians in need in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution had broken the deadlock at the UN over a response to the Israel-Hamas war, which erupted on October 7, with member states of the UN Security Council (UNSC) having failed to reach an agreement on four draft resolutions. However, this has not stopped Israel from continuing with its operations in Gaza. So, why is Israel not bothered by the UNGA resolution?
Also read: Israel ignores UNGA's resolution for ceasefire, intensifies war in Gaza
The fact of the matter is, that unlike UNSC resolutions, UNGA resolutions are non-binding and can only provide guidance to the parties involved. When the UNSC is unable to shoulder its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security, member states can call for an emergency special session of the UNGA.
This is what happened this week in the case of the Israel-Hamas war. The UNSC’s failure to agree on multiple resolutions triggered a group of UN member states to submit a request to the UNGA president to call an emergency special session.
In an emergency special session, the UNGA typically hears from the country or countries of concern. Member states then debate the issue and vote on a draft resolution. If adopted by a two-thirds majority, the non-binding General Assembly resolution guides nations. And that is what happened with Friday’s resolution. The resolution for the humanitarian truce in Gaza is a guidance or advisory to the countries or parties, in this case, Israel and Palestine.
While Palestine welcomed the UNGA resolution, Israel dismissed it as “a dark day for the UN and mankind”. Riyad Mansour, the Palestine Authority’s Ambassador to the UN, called the General Assembly “more courageous, more principled” than the divided UNSC, which failed in four attempts during the past two weeks to reach an agreement on a resolution. Two were vetoed and two failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes required for approval.
On the other hand, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan dismissed the resolution saying that Israel would continue to defend itself. “Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance,” Erdan said.
This is why, more than a UNGA resolution, it is a UNSC resolution that will help restore some amount of peace in Gaza. The UNSC decisions are formal expressions of the will of the Council. In contrast to the decisions taken by the UNGA, those taken by the UNSC are legally binding.
There are 15 members of the UNSC. Five of these--China, France, Russia, the UK and the US--are permanent members. The other 10 are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms. Member states continue to discuss changes in UNSC membership and working methods to reflect today’s political and economic realities. Decisions of the UNSC require nine “yes” votes. Except in votes on procedural questions, a decision cannot be made if there is a no vote, popularly known as a veto, by a permanent member.
So, what are the four attempts at a UNSC resolution that Palestine’s Mansour referred to? On October 16, a Russia-led draft resolution pushed for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all people taken into captivity since October 7, access to aid and safe evacuation of civilians. While five UNSC members, including China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), voted in favour, France, Japan, the US and the UK voted against it, while six abstained, including Brazil, Ecuador, and Switzerland.
Two days later, a Brazil-led draft resolution proposed “humanitarian pauses” to allow full and unhindered aid into Gaza, the condemnation of violence against all civilians, and the rescission of Israel’s order to Palestinians to evacuate from the north of Gaza to the south. While 12 UNSC member states voted in favour, Russia and the UK abstained, while the US vetoed it.
Then again, on October 25, Russia presented a fresh draft resolution proposing that Israel immediately cancel its evacuation order for Palestinians in northern Gaza. But it did not mention Israel’s “inherent right to self-defence”. While China, Gabon, Russia and the UAE voted in favour, nine countries abstained from voting and the UK and the US vetoed it.
The same day, the US introduced another draft resolution, which called for a humanitarian pause, not a ceasefire, that would allow aid into Gaza. The draft resolution supported the “inherent right of all states” (read Israel here) to self-defence, called for compliance with international law, and pushed for Hamas to release all its captives. While 10 nations voted in favour, permanent members Russia and China vetoed it and Brazil and Mozambique abstained.
Four resolutions introduced in the UNSC since the Israel-Hamas started on October 7 that have claimed over 9,000 lives on both sides so far could not see the light of day. Till the time the UNSC members do not come on the same page of a resolution, doomsday prophecies made by experts and analysts the world over will hold.
