Egypt, Arab world step up diplomatic pressure for Gaza ceasefire: The UN General Assembly will convene today to vote on a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as the humanitarian crisis on the ground reaches catastrophic levels. The emergency meeting was called by Egypt and Mauritania after the US blocked another resolution at the Security Council last week despite the UN and aid agencies warning of starvation conditions and the imminent collapse of public order.

Remember: The General Assembly has already passed one resolution calling for a ceasefire. In an emergency session in October, more than two-thirds of countries voted in favor of a resolution demanding an “immediate, durable” humanitarian ceasefire. Just 14 — including Israel, the US, and several European nations — voted against it.

UAE flies Security Council envoys to Rafah ahead of the vote:In a bid to build diplomatic pressure ahead of the vote, the UAE flew a dozen envoys of members of the UN Security Council to the Rafah border to meet with UNRWA personnel, where several reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire. “Enough is enough,” China’s UN representative told reporters. “The reality is even worse than what words can speak,” said the Ecuadorian rep. “The humanitarian system is in breakdown.”

  • China, Russia and the UK were the three permanent members of the council that joined the trip;
  • The US and Francedeclined to attend.

ON THE GROUND- At least 18,205 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October | Almost 50k have been injured | 1.9 mn people — 85% of Gaza’s population — have been displaced.

  • Israel is taking heavy casualties: More than 5k Israeli soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, a figure that Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth called “unprecedented.”
  • Picking up the bill for Israel’s destruction of Gaza? Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee that he will expand the Abraham Accords “the day after the war” and persuade the two Gulf states to subsidize the reconstruction process, according to Israel Hayom.

REGIONAL ESCALATION- Iraqi armed factions attacked two US military bases in Syria and Iraq | An Israeli airstrike killed the mayor of a Lebanese village near the border.

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