Palestinians Will Lift Israeli Attacks On U.N. General Assembly

Illustration of Palestinians in Gaza. (Wikimedia Commons/מינוגיג - MinoZig)

JAKARTA - The Palestinian Authority will head to the United Nations General Assembly (UN) to pass a resolution to stop Israeli aggression, Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayyeh said. "Unfortunately, the U.N. Security Council failed to reach a resolution condemning and stopping Israeli attacks," Shtayyeh said at a Cabinet meeting in Ramallah City, West Bank, reported Antara, Monday, May 17." This means that we will go to the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution where no country has veto power," he said. At least 198 Palestinians have been killed, including 58 children and 34 women, in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since last week, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.More than 1,235 people were also injured and dozens of buildings destroyed or damaged in Israeli attacks.

The U.N. Security Council held a meeting on Sunday, May 16, on tensions between Israelis and Palestinians amid previous attacks in Gaza, but the debate ended without concrete results. The session was the third held by the U.N. highest body this week, after two U.S. moves to block a joint statement that would condemn Israel for the violence and call for a ceasefire. Recent tensions that began in East Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks on worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem.Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa was located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel annexed the entire city in 1980 in an act never recognized by the international community.