United Nation General Assembly passes resolution for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

The United Nation General Assembly has passed a resolution demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages by the Palestinian resistance groups after more than two-third of the countries present had voted in favour of it.

The UNGA met on Tuesday (12 Dec) in an emergency session to discuss the Israeli war in Gaza amid the growing number of casualties suffered by the Palestinians.

This is after Egypt and Mauritania jointly invoked the rarely-used resolution 377A (V) on Monday.

The move follows the failure of the UN Security Council last week to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza due to a veto by United States, a permanent member of the council.

The Uniting for Peace resolution was invoked by Egypt as the chair of the Arab group in the UN and Mauritania as the chair of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The 377A resolution was first adopted by the General Assembly in November 1950 during the Korean War making itself an alternative platform to work for peace in case the permanent members of the Security Council fail to execute the fundamental task of the international body.

The resolution says, “If the Security Council because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures, including…. the use of armed forces when necessary.”

Singapore is one of the 153 countries that voted in favour of the resolution calling for a ceasefire.

The 10 countries that voted against the resolution include Israel and its staunch ally, US.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has mounted to 18,412, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Tuesday.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said that 50,100 other people were injured in the Israeli onslaught.

“Some 326,000 cases of infectious diseases were detected by health teams in various shelter centers,” al-Qudra told a press conference.

Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and land, imposed a siege and mounted a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on 7 October.

The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.