The UN General Assembly on Friday voted in favor of a resolution welcoming the recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which stated that Israel must facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through UN agencies, including UNRWA.
139 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 12 voted against and 19 abstained.
In addition to Israel and the US, the following countries voted against the resolution: Argentina, Bolivia, Fiji, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, blasted the vote and said, “UNRWA = hotbed of terrorism.”
“Earlier today, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling on Israel to cooperate with terrorism. That will not happen. We will not forget the crimes against humanity committed by UNRWA workers on October 7th. We will not forget that an UNRWA ‘social worker’ kidnapped Yonatan Samerano’s lifeless body to Gaza. For the sake of peace in the world, UNRWA must go,” he declared.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “The UN General Assembly’s call for Israel to cooperate with UNRWA-Hamas proves once again that it is a morally distorted body.”
“As proven by abundant documents and video clips, UNRWA’s employees took part in the October 7th massacre. UNRWA allowed Hamas to use its facilities as Hamas’ headquarters, for the storage of weapons, and for hiding and holding hostages.”
“In the cynical political machine of the UN, everything is done to ignore this reality: the General Assembly turned to the politicized ICJ to obtain an opinion for political use, and now this political theatre is adopting the preordained absurd ‘conclusions’. Israel salutes the countries that did not support this shameful resolution,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
UNRWA has long been criticized for its cooperation with the Hamas terrorist organization, which has been proven time and time again. That criticism has increased since Israel provided evidence in 2024 that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
Following the Israeli revelations, Guterres announced the creation of a review group, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, to look into the Israeli allegations.
The group said in its report that it found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)