UN General Assembly Okays Hamas-free Palestinian State

The UN General Assembly on Friday voted to back a resolution recognising two-state solution between Israel and Palestine without the Hamas.

The resolution was adopted via 142 votes in support, 10 votes, including that of Israel and the United States against with 12 abstentions.

The General Assembly also clearly condemned Hamas, demanding it to surrender its weapons.

Israel had criticised UN bodies for nearly two years over their failure to condemn Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, the declaration, presented by France and Saudi Arabia however left no ambiguity.

The New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, demanded that “Hamas must free all hostages” and that the UN General Assembly condemns “the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October.”

It also called for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution.”

The declaration, which was already endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries, also seeks to fully exclude Hamas from leadership in Gaza.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” the declaration stated.

Palestinian vice president Hussein al-Sheikh welcomed the decision, describing the resolution as expressesing “international willingness to support our people’s rights and constitutes an important step towards ending the occupation and achieving our independent state.”

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein in a post on X condemned the decision, conveying Israel’s utter rejection of the declaration.

Marmorstein stressed that the declaration was an evidence that the General Assembly had become “a political circus detached from reality.”