Palestinians are hoping to reinforce a recent ruling by the UN's top court that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful, by introducing a UN General Assembly resolution.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told the UN Security Council that the resolution, which would not be legally binding, is essential to spur the end of Israel’s occupation.
“We are sick and tired of waiting,” he said. “The time for waiting is over.”
The International Court of Justice on July 19 issued an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago. It called for the occupation to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the nonbinding opinion by the court’s 15 judges, saying the territories are part of the Jewish people’s historic homeland.
The court said the General Assembly and Security Council should consider “precise modalities” to end Israel’s presence in the territories.
Mansour said the resolution will be “a significant step” toward a two-state solution in which independent states of Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated his longstanding opposition to a two-state solution. He has said a Palestinian state would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
Mansour also told the council that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declared his intention to visit Gaza and has called for world leaders, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and leaders of the 15 Security Council nations to join him. He wants them “to see first-hand the horrors our people are enduring” and to demand a halt to the nearly 11-month war between Israel and Hamas, Mansour said.
The war was sparked by the October 7 invasion of southern Israel by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people and saw about 250 people taken hostage. More than 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Palestinian health officials say the latest Israeli strike has killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip.
They say the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital received the bodies, including the remains of a woman and three children, after strikes overnight and into Thursday.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said that “Gaza stands at a crossroads” and unless Hamas is ousted the territory has no future.
Meanwhile, disagreements over Israel's future military presence in the Gaza Strip and over Palestinian prisoner releases are obstructing a ceasefire and hostage deal, according to sources familiar with a round of US-mediated talks that concluded last week.
The sources told Reuters the disagreements stemmed from demands Israel has introduced since Hamas accepted a version of a ceasefire proposal unveiled by US President Joe Biden in May.
All the sources said Hamas was especially concerned about the latest demand to keep troops deployed along the Netzarim Corridor, an east-west strip Israel cleared during the current war that prevents Palestinians' free movement between north and south Gaza, as well as in a narrow border strip between the enclave and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
