The UN General Assembly convened in New York this morning in an emergency session to discuss the crisis in the Middle East.
The meeting comes after three separate UN Security Council resolutions failed to be adopted, exposing the ongoing deadlock in the UN's most senior decision-making body and pushing the debate to the wider membership of the United Nations.
Before the session got underway, the Israeli Mission to the UN distributed flyers to delegates with a QR code linking to a video of the attacks on Israeli citizens by Hamas.
This morning’s meeting was opened by the current President of General Assembly, Dennis Francis, who told delegates that it could not be another "business-as-usual" session.
"I urge the membership to use today's session not to further fan the flames of division and revenge," he said.
"Let us seize the opportunity instead to unify our and our actions to save lives and end violence," Mr Francis said.
The Palestinian envoy then took the podium to call on the international community to "stop the bombs."
As he described individual stories of Palestinian children who have been killed or injured, Ambassador Riyad Mansour of the Observer State of Palestine fought back tears.
"7,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the last almost three weeks," he said, "70% of all those killed are women and children."
"Is this the war that some of you are defending? Can this war be defended?" he asked delegates.
"How can representatives of states explain how horrible it is that 1,000 Israelis were killed and not feel the same outrage when 1,000 Palestinians are now killed every day," he said.
Immediately following the Palestinian envoy’s speech, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, took the floor.
Ambassador Erdan emotionally described details of the murder and mutilation of Israeli citizens including children in the Hamas attacks.
"The October 7 massacre and what ensued has nothing to do with the Palestinians nothing. It has nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict or the Palestinian question," he told delegates.
"This is not a war with the Palestinians. Israel is at war with the genocidal jihadist Hamas terror organization. It is the law-abiding democracy of Israel against modern day Nazis," he said.
During his speech, Ambassador Erdan held up an iPad, which he told delegates showed the attempted decapitation of a Thai agricultural worker by Hamas.
"Hamas is counting on you," he told delegates.
"They are certain that despite the terror and massacre, the UN will still come to their rescue and prevent Israel from defending itself."
The emergency session will debate a resolution tabled by the Jordanian mission to the United Nations and other Arab states, which Israel rejects for failing to condemn the Hamas attacks.
It is expected that a vote will then take place on Friday.
The General Assembly meeting takes place at the end of a tense week at the United Nations. On Tuesday, the Israeli mission to the UN called for the resignation of the Secretary of the United Nations, António Guterres, over his comments that the attacks by Hamas did "not happen in a vacuum."
The Security Council discussed two rival resolutions – one drafted by the United States and another by Russia. Both failed to get the requisite number of votes.
