US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley will push a resolution condemning Hamas in response to a Palestinian-led effort to blame Israel for the violence and Palestinian casualties on the Gaza border.
By: World Israel News Staff
Responding to an initiative in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) slated for Wednesday to lambaste Israel for Palestinian deaths in Gaza, the Trump administration is calling for a counter-measure in which the 193-nation body would separately denounce Hamas.
The Arab-backed text is “fundamentally imbalanced” and “ignores basic truths about the situation in Gaza,” US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wrote in a letter sent to her fellow UN envoys on Tuesday.
“In particular, the draft places all responsibility for the current situation on Israel,” she added.
“Any resolution focused on the protection of civilians in Gaza must recognize the destabilizing and reckless actions of Hamas, which endanger the lives and livelihoods of innocent civilians.”
The UNGA is set to vote on an anti-Israel resolution calling for the “protection of the Palestinian civilian population” after a similar measure, drafted by Kuwait, was vetoed by the US at the Security Council last week.
After that vote, Haley, proposed a second resolution that would condemn Hamas’ recent rocket firings on Israeli territory.
Haley will repeat this tactic in the UNGA, pushing an amendment to the Arab-backed resolution that will be addressed before the full anti-Israel resolution is put to a vote.
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said during a press conference in New York on Friday that despite being in the initial stages, he had managed to draw support for such a resolution from the “majority of members” of the Security Council.
“And, we are determined to have a larger support in the General Assembly, when it moves to the General Assembly soon. And we will not relent until protection is provided in the path of ending occupation,” he stated.