OIC welcomes UN resolution calling for immediate cease-fire in Gaza

By Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) welcomed Tuesday a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the Jeddah-based bloc considered the resolution “an important step towards the international community taking responsibility for halting the eight-month-old genocide committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation.”

The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution supporting a Gaza cease-fire proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden.

It states that Israel has accepted Biden's proposal and calls on the Palestinian resistance group Hamas to do the same and implement it.

On May 31, Biden said that Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a cease-fire, a hostage-prisoner exchange, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 37,200 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 84,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.