Israeli, Palestinian representatives trade charges at UNGA, US defends veto

United Nations, Jan 10 : The representatives of Israel and Palestine have traded charges about the scale of atrocities committed, while the US defended its veto of an amendment proposed by Russia to a Security Council on Gaza.

They were speaking on Tuesday at a meeting of the UN General Assembly called under its resolution that requires permanent members, who use their vetoes in the Council to explain their action.

Meanwhile, a group of rabbis and Jewish seminary students staged protests within the UN calling for a ceasefire, a demand that is in opposition to Israel, whose representative was denouncing it as empowering Hamas.

US Deputy Permanent Representative Robert Wood and Israels UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan highlighted the plight of the Israelis and others held hostage by Hamas and other groups in Gaza.

Erdan accused the UN of being a "tool of war in the arsenal of Hamas" and being "obsessed" only with the people of Gaza and ignoring the Israeli hostages.

Asked about the allegation, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterress Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said later at his daily briefing that Guterres is "obsessed" with all the civilians and has also called for freeing the hostages.

Palestines Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour said that in Gaza his people were "being slaughtered" and children killed, amputated and orphaned.

"How can you reconcile opposing the atrocities and vetoing a call to end the war that is leading to their commission?" he asked.

He said the number of people killed in Gaza -- over 23,000 according to the territorys health services -- would translate to three milliion in proportion to the size of the US population.

He dramatically held up a placard, "Ceasefire Now," which he said was cropping up across the US, including at a speech by President Joe Biden.

Erdan, with a dramatic flourish, produced at the podium a birthday cake for an Israeli baby, Kfir Bibas, who was abducted during the 10/7 attack along with his parents and a sibling while he was only nine months old.

He said that the cake with the infants image was a symbolic celebration of his first birthday while he is held hostage and that he was drawing attention to the brutality of Hamass treatment of babies and children.

He accused Hamas of using sexual violence as an instrument of war.

The UN, he said, was ignoring it and was "morally bankrupt" and acting like a "drunken man".

Wood blamed Russia for the US veto, saying that "one permanent member of the Security Council continues to put forward amendments and ideas that are disconnected from the situation on the ground".

He said that it was "deeply troubling" that many countries were ignoring the plight of more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza.

Israel would welcome a return to a pause in hostilities to help the return of hostages but Hamas was reneging on its commitments for it to be possible, Wood added.

Russias Deputy Permanent Representative Anna Evstigneeva said that because of the US blackmail of using its veto, the Council could only pass "toothless" resolutions.

The US, she alleged, was deliberately undermining efforts at the UN regarding the Gaza situation and giving Israel a free rein.

Dujarric said that 40 in a group of rabbis and seminarians staged the peaceful protest in the Council chambers visitors gallery, although the body was not in session, and nine others in the top gallery in the Assembly hall.

They were peaceful and their message was for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, "which frankly is what we have been calling," Dujarric said.

Although Russias amendment last month calling for a "suspension of hostilities" was vetoed, the resolution that instead called for steps "to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities" passed with 13 votes in the 15-member Council while the US and Russia abstained.

That resolution was the sixth to come before the Council since the 10/7 Hamas terror attack and Israels retaliation.

Two resolutions have passed, two were vetoed by the US, one by Russia and another by both Russia and China.

Fighting was paused for four days in November to facilitate the release of hostages and to allow relief supplies into Gaza.

During that pause that was extended by three days, about 100 hostages were released.

The current crisis began on October 7 when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 240 as hostages.

Israel retaliated on a massive scale with aerial bombing and a ground invasion, which has displaced about 86 per cent of the territorys population of 2.2 million, according to the UN.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

arul/khz