UN General Assembly to hold emergency meeting on protecting Palestinians amid deadly Israel crackdown

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency meeting next Wednesday to vote on a resolution on Gaza, the body's president Miroslav Lajcak announced on Friday.

The resolution will condemn Israel, and will be similar to one vetoed by the United States in the Security Council last week, which called for protecting Palestinians from Israeli aggression, according to diplomats.

Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said that the Kuwaiti resolution was "extremely balanced," and he said almost the same text will be put to a vote in the General Assembly.

"We are mobilising all of our efforts with as many as we can reach from groups and member states to receive the largest number of votes possible to support us," Mansour said.

Mansour said he believed Lajcak will set a date "very soon," and that it will "most likely" be next Wednesday afternoon.

The move came after four Palestinians were killed, including a teenager, by Israeli fire on the Gaza border on Friday, as weeks of a deadly crackdown on protesters continued.

Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly have no binding value, unlike those passed by the Security Council.

Arab countries turned to the General Assembly in December after the US vetoed a Security Council vote on a resolution to condemn its decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Fourteen members of the Security Council backed the December resolution, though the US as well as the council's four other permanent members retain a right to veto.

The measure then received 128 votes out of 193 in the General Assembly.

A diplomatic source said the emergency meeting had been pushed by the Organization of Islamic States and the Arab League.

Several European countries have tried to dissuade Palestinians and Arab countries from demanding a vote in the General Assembly after last week's US veto.

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, has condemned the planned resolution.
Israeli security forces have killed over 126 Palestinians and wounded over 10,000 since protests began March 30.

Dubbed the "Great Return March", the demonstrations have centred on a demand for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, after they were expelled following the 1948 creation of Israel.

The demonstrations and violence peaked on May 14 when at least 61 Palestinians were killed when Gazans protested the US transfer of its embassy in Israel to the disputed city of Jerusalem on the same day.