UN Demands immediate Gaza Ceasefire as Israel’s Cabinet of Horrors Continues – 53 Killed, as 65K lack Food, Water, Medicine

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that the Israeli military killed 53 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli Air Force intentionally targeted residential buildings in the north and the south of the Strip, in Beit Lahiya and in the Al-Janina neighborhood east of Rafah City.

The Israeli Air Force also massively bombed Jabalia camp, demolishing homes and residential blocks. Then Israeli army vehicles advanced on neighborhoods in Beit Lahiya and Al-Mashrou’, to the accompaniment of artillery shelling and heavy gunfire.

AP reports a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp that left seven dead: “The dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.”

In the midst of the ongoing carnage, the 193-member United Nations General Assembly voted 158 to 9 (with 13 abstentions) to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution was spearheaded by Algeria. The body voted along similar lines to defend the UN Relief and Works Agency from attacks on it by Israel and to demand that Israeli restrictions on the body be lifted. The resolution called for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties,” and at the same time voiced once more a “demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”. See the Appendix at the bottom of this post for the full text.

On November 20, the US had vetoed a similar measure in the UN Security Council, where the 5 permanent members on that 15-member body can block the passage of resolutions unilaterally.

“UN in Gaza,” Digital, Midjourney / Clip2Comic, 2024

Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced that it had launched air strikes taking out Fahmi Sulaima, who commanded the elite Nukhba Force of Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion in Gaza City and allegedly was responsible for planning the attacks against Israeli sites on October 7, 2023. Another airstrike struck Salah Dahman, Head of the Paratroopers Unit of Hamas. Current Israeli rules of engagement permit the killing of up to 20 innocent civilians for every militant killed.

The Israeli military has for some weeks kept Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and parts of Jabalia under siege and denied food and other aid for over two months. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid writes that “Large-scale forced displacement from Beit Lahiya was reported over the past week, including 5,500 people forcibly displaced on 4 December from three schools in Beit Lahiya to Gaza city.” In the past week, while the world’s eyes have been fixed on Syria, Israeli soldiers in Gaza have killed 284 Palestinians and wounded 734. A little over a week ago the Israelis bombarded yet another tent city, al-Mawasi setting off cooking-gas canisters and causing a conflagration of the tents that left 21 people dead, including children and a pregnant woman, and displaced 110 people now forced to sleep rough.

OCHA also notes the continued Israeli campaign against hospitals and health care in north Gaza: “On four occasions between 3 and 7 December, Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, which currently hosts 90 patients and 66 medical staff, was reportedly attacked by fire, bombs and shells, resulting in the killing of seven people including four medics and a child, the injury of at least three medical staff as well as patients and companions, and damage to water and fuel tanks and the oxygen station. According to MoH, the 16-year-old boy who was killed at the hospital’s entrance was in a wheelchair and on his way to the radiology department.” The Israeli tank corps successfully forced out a WHO-appointed team of doctors from Indonesia.

This is the text of A/ES-10/L.33:

General Assembly ([drafted] 5 December 2024

Tenth emergency special session

Agenda item 5

Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Guinea, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and State of Palestine:* draft resolution

Demand for ceasefire in Gaza

The General Assembly,

Reaffirming the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and recalling its resolutions regarding the question of Palestine, and all the relevant resolutions of the Security Council,

Reaffirming also that all parties to armed conflicts must comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and underscoring the importance of holding accountable those responsible for all violations of international law,

Deploring all attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as all violence and hostilities against civilians, and all acts of terrorism, reaffirming its rejection of forced displacement of the civilian population, including children, in violation of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and recalling that the taking of hostages is prohibited under international law,

Recalling the orders of provisional measures of the International Court of Justice in the case concerning the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide1 in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), indicated by the Court on 26 January, 28 March and 24 May 2024, given its determination that there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights found by the Court to be plausible, namely the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts mentioned in article III of the Convention, recalling also the advisory opinion rendered on 19 July 2024 by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 2 and underscoring that respect for the International Court of Justice and its functions, including the obligations under international law indicated in the exercise of its advisory jurisdiction and in its orders of provisional measures, is essential to international law and to an international order based on the rule of law,

Expressing its deep alarm over the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the lack of adequate healthcare services and the extreme state of food insecurity creating an imminent risk of famine notably in the north, and its grave impact on children, women and other civilians,

Commending the ongoing efforts of the United Nations under the leadership of its Secretary-General, and regional and international actors, to achieve an immediate ceasefire, secure the release of the hostages and address the catastrophic humanitarian situation, emphasizing the imperative and obligations of all parties to allow and facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance by United Nations agencies and other humanitarian actors, emphasizing also that actions obstructing the operations of these actors may contravene the Charter and undermine international peace and security, expressing deep alarm at the number of humanitarian workers killed in Gaza, and recalling its demand that all parties to the conflict comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, including with regard to humanitarian access, the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and their freedom of movement,

1. Demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages;

2. Also demands that the parties fully comply with their obligations under international law in relation to persons they detain, including by releasing all those arbitrarily detained and all human remains;

3. Further demands immediate access by the civilian population in the Gaza Strip to basic services and humanitarian assistance indispensable to its survival, while rejecting any effort to starve Palestinians, and further demands the facilitation of full, rapid, safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance, at scale and under the coordination of the United Nations, to and throughout the Gaza Strip and its delivery to all Palestinian civilians who need it, including to civilians in besieged north Gaza, who are in urgent need of immediate humanitarian relief;

4. Calls upon all parties to fully comply with international law, including international humanitarian law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially women and children, and persons hors de combat, as well as civilian objects;

5. Demands that the parties fully, unconditionally and without delay implement all the provisions of Security Council resolution 2735 (2024) of 10 June 2024 regarding an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners, the return of the remains of hostages who have been killed, the return of Palestinian civilians to their homes and neighbourhoods in all areas of Gaza, including in the north, and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza;

6. Underscores that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza, rejects actions that undermine the implementation of the mandate of the Agency, welcomes the commitment of the Secretary-General and the Agency to fully implement the recommendations of the Independent Review of Mechanisms and Procedures to Ensure Adherence by UNRWA to the Humanitarian Principle of Neutrality, and calls upon all parties to enable the Agency to carry out its mandate, as adopted by the General Assembly, in all areas of operation, with full respect for the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, and to respect international humanitarian law, including the protection of United Nations and humanitarian facilities;

7. Stresses the need for accountability, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to present, in the written assessment on the implementation of the present resolution requested in paragraph 9 below, and in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, proposals on how the United Nations could help to advance accountability through existing mechanisms and through the establishment of new mechanisms, based on its experience in other situations;

8. Reiterates its unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution, with the Gaza Strip as part of the Palestinian State, and where two democratic States, Palestine and Israel, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, consistent with international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, and in this regard rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of the Gaza Strip, and stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority;

9. Requests a written assessment by the Secretary-General on the implementation of the present resolution within three weeks of its adoption;

10. Requests the Secretary-General to submit a comprehensive written report within 60 days of the adoption of the present resolution, which should include a needs assessment for Gaza in the short, medium and long term, an elaboration of the humanitarian, social and economic consequences of the conflict in Gaza, and an overview of the work of different parts of the United Nations system relevant to Gaza, along with recommendations on how to strengthen coordination across these parts;

11. 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.