THE United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will meet tomorrow to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, officials and diplomats said yesterday, after the United States last week vetoed a Security Council resolution for a ceasefire.

A special session of the UNGA was called for tomorrow afternoon by the representatives for Egypt and Mauritania “in their respective capacities as chair of the Arab Group and chair of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation”, a spokesman for the assembly president said.

Diplomatic sources said the UNGA, whose resolutions are non-binding, could vote on a text for a ceasefire resolution at the meeting.

A draft of the text seen by AFP closely followed the language of Friday’s vetoed Security Council resolution, “expressing grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”.

It called for “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” as well as the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

On Friday, the US blocked the ceasefire resolution, which came after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called an emergency meeting of the Security Council, deploying the rarely used article 99 of the UN Charter to bring to the council’s attention “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.

The body’s “authority and credibility” have been “severely undermined” by its delayed response to the war, Guterres said afterwards.

At the end of October, in another of its resolutions, the UNGA called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.

Two weeks later, the Security Council broke its silence on the war for the first time by calling for “extended pauses and humanitarian corridors” – using less clear language than a ceasefire or a truce. – AFP, December 11, 2023.