Member States adopted a resolution, demanding an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and well as “ensuring humanitarian access”.

It passed with a large majority of 153 in favour and 10 against, with 23 abstentions

The resolution also reiterated the General Assembly’s demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, “notably with regard to the protection of civilians”

Prior to the resolution, two amendments making specific reference to extremist group Hamas were voted down by members

Ahead of the vote, General Assembly President Dennis Francis said the world was witnessing an “unprecedented collapse” of a “real-time” humanitarian system, and deemed it high time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

The resolution adopted by the General Assembly on Tuesday differs significantly from the text vetoed by the United States in the Council on Friday.

The text takes note of a letter dated December 7 from the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), addressed to the President of the General Assembly. In this letter, Philippe Lazzarini warns that the agency’s ability to implement its mandate in Gaza is “severely limited”, and that the main humanitarian aid platform for over 2.2 million people in the enclave is “on the verge of collapse”.

The text also refers to previous resolutions on the question of Palestine, as well as relevant Security Council resolutions on the subject.

The main points in common between the two texts include an immediate humanitarian ceasefire; the demand that all parties respect their obligations under international law, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians; the demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the guarantee of humanitarian access.

Text of the adopted resolution

Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations 

The General Assembly, 

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, 

Recalling its resolutions regarding the question of Palestine, 

Recalling also all relevant Security Council resolutions, 

Taking note of the letter dated 6 December 2023 from the Secretary-General, under Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations, addressed to the President of the Security Council,

Taking note also of the letter dated 7 December 2023 from the CommissionerGeneral of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East addressed to the President of the General Assembly,

Expressing grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population, and emphasizing that the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law,

1. Demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire;
2. Reiterates its demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians;
3. Demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access;
4. Decides to adjourn the tenth emergency special session temporarily and to authorize the President of the General Assembly at its most recent session to resume its meeting upon request from Member States.

The resolution does not condemn Hamas or make any specific reference to the extremist group.

The amendments

Two amendments proposed to the text of the General Assembly resolution on Tuesday were rejected in separate votes.

Austria has proposed an amendment, that inserts the phrase, “held by Hamas and other groups” in relation to the hostages still being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as well as inserting the word “immediate” in reference to ensuring humanitarian access.

The US amendment reflects its continued point of contention regarding Hamas, which it designates as a terrorist group, calling for wording to be inserted “unequivocally” rejecting and condemning “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages” as the first operative paragraph.

Not binding, but influential

Resolutions by the General Assembly, though not legally binding on nations, do carry immense moral weight, representing the collective resolve of the UN membership on a matter of grave importance.

These resolutions also lead to key legal frameworks and standards, such as the over 60 human rights instruments underpinning the international rights regime, which emanate from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration was proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1948, and by itself is not binding.

Emergency session

General Assembly adopts resolution on Protection of Civilians and Upholding Legal and Humanitarian Obligations in Gaza.

The session today is a continuation of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly that last met on 26 October amid the present crisis in Gaza, during which it adopted a resolution on the crisis, calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”

The General Assembly will resume the emergency session on Friday afternoon in New York starting at 3pm

The last barely functioning hospital in northern Gaza is a “humanitarian disaster zone”, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, highlighting the disastrous consequences of ongoing Israeli bombardment for critically ill and injured civilians across the enclave.

Briefing reporters from Gaza, Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, described corridors overflowing with trauma patients at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, where doctors treat people on the floor and fuel, oxygen, food and water are scarce.

In just 66 days of fighting, the Strip has been transformed from a “reasonably functioning health system” producing health indicators “on par with neighbouring countries” to a situation where more than two thirds of its 36 hospitals and over 70 per cent of primary health care facilities are out of commission, Dr. Peeperkorn said. 

Meanwhile WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva that the Kamal Adwan Hospital – also in the north – was being “forcefully evacuated” on Tuesday morning, according to Gaza’s health authorities. Some 68 patients including 18 in intensive care and six newborns are reportedly at the site, alongside thousands of displaced people seeking safety. The hospital has been surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks for days, with armed clashes reported nearby, UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said. On Monday, the hospital’s maternity department was reportedly hit during shelling and two mothers were killed.

Mission fraught with ‘serious incidents’

Amid sky-high humanitarian needs in Gaza’s devastated north, Al-Ahli Hospital is severely short-staffed, Dr. Peeperkorn said, with over 200 patients but only enough resources to support 40. Unable to perform vascular operations, staff are carrying out limb amputations “as the last resort to save lives”.

Last Saturday a WHO-led UN and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) convoy encountered “serious incidents” during a mission to deliver trauma and surgical supplies for 1,500 patients to the hospital and transfer 19 critical patients and their companions to Nasser Medical Complex in south Gaza, the UN health agency said.

Detention at gunpoint

Dr. Peeperkorn described the numerous obstacles faced by this mission, including inspections at the Israeli military checkpoint at Wadi Gaza on the way north, where two PRCS staff were detained for over an hour. According to a statement released by the UN health agency on Tuesday, “WHO staff saw one of them being made to kneel at gunpoint and then taken out of sight, where he was reportedly harassed, beaten, stripped and searched”.

The WHO medic stressed that “nobody can be detained when they are part of a medical mission” and emphasized the fact that such vital humanitarian missions “cannot afford any delays”.

Dr. Peeperkorn said that arriving in north Gaza, which now “looks like a wasteland”, the humanitarians saw many people in the street surprised at the sight of the convoy, as there had been very little aid access to the north of the enclave for months now.

Deadly delays

Upon entering Gaza City the aid truck with the medical supplies and one of the ambulances which were part of the convoy were hit by bullets, WHO said, and on the way back towards southern Gaza, with the patients from Al-Ahli Hospital on board, “the convoy was again stopped at the same checkpoint, where PRCS staff and most of the patients had to leave the ambulances for security checks”. 

Critical patients remaining in the ambulances were searched by armed soldiers, and one of the same two PRCS staff temporarily detained earlier on the way in was taken for interrogation a second time. Significant delays ensued and “PRCS reported afterwards that during the transfer process, one of the injured patients died, as a result of his untreated wounds”, WHO said.

After his release later that night “after joint UN efforts” the PRCS staff member said that he had been beaten and humiliated, then “left to walk towards the south with his hands still tied behind his back, and without clothes or shoes”.

Health system ‘must be protected’

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed on social platform X on Tuesday his concern about “prolonged checks and detention of health workers that put lives of already fragile patients at risk”.

“The people of Gaza have the right to access health care,” he insisted. “The health system must be protected. Even in war.”

Disease on the rise

The scale of displacement in the Strip, where some 1.9 million people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population, have been forced to flee their homes, and conditions in overcrowded shelters including the lack of proper sanitation, have led to a massive increase in diseases, Dr. Peeperkorn said. There were already some 60,000 cases of diarrhoea in children under five and more than 160,000 cases of acute respiratory infections. Scabies, skin rashes, chicken pox and even meningitis are on the rise, alongside severe trauma and spinal injuries.

Meanwhile health workers lack basic essentials and are “completely preoccupied by the safety of their families”.

The UN health agency official stressed that it was imperative to make the primary healthcare system functional again and bring back maternal and child health, obstetric care, treatment for non-communicable diseases, oncology and mental health support among others.

More hospital beds in Rafah

In the south, which Dr. Peeperkorn called the “backbone” of Gaza’s health system, on Monday the Palestine Red Crescent Society began preparations for establishing a field hospital in collaboration with the Qatari Red Crescent Society, in Rafah governorate. WHO said that the hospital is set to have 50 beds, including an operating room, intensive care unit, reception and radiology. 

The UN health agency stressed the importance of adding hospital capacity in the enclave. According to Gaza’s health authorities only one per cent of Palestinians injured in hostilities, or some 400 people, have so far been evacuated outside of Gaza for hospitalization through the Rafah border crossing. 

Close to 50,000 people have been injured in Gaza since 7 October and some 8,000 of them require “urgent and immediate medical intervention”, WHO said. 

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