By Nadine Osman
London, (The Muslim News): The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly endorsed the New York Declaration on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, providing renewed momentum to the two-state solution at a time of unprecedented devastation in Gaza.
On Friday, 142 of the UN’s 193 member states voted in favour of the resolution, while 10 countries – including Israel, the United States, Argentina, Hungary, and Paraguay – opposed it. Twelve abstained. The declaration, the outcome of a high-level international conference co-hosted in July by France and Saudi Arabia will be further discussed when the conference reconvenes later this month.
Hours before the vote, Netanyahu said “there will be no Palestinian state.” He spoke at the signing of an agreement to expand settlements that will divide the West Bank, which the Palestinians insist must be part of their state, saying, “This place belongs to us.”
The United States opposed the resolution. US’s Mission counselor Morgan Ortagus said: The resolution is yet another misguided and ill-timed publicity stunt that undermines serious diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Make no mistake, this resolution is a gift to Hamas.”
French Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont described the document as “a single roadmap to deliver the two-state solution”. Its provisions include an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, the establishment of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, the disarmament of Hamas, its exclusion from governance in Gaza, and normalisation of relations between Israel and Arab states within a framework of collective security guarantees.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, addressing the July conference, reiterated that “the central question for Middle East peace is implementation of the two-state solution, where two independent, sovereign, democratic states – Israel and Palestine – live side-by-side in peace and security.”
Israel dismissed the resolution as unbalanced. Its ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, described the declaration as “another hollow gesture that weakens this Assembly’s credibility”, claiming that “Hamas is the biggest winner of any endorsement here today.”
The diplomatic milestone came against the backdrop of intensifying conflict in Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Friday that at least 64,756 people have been killed and more than 164,059 injured since Israel’s military campaign began in October 2023. In the preceding 24 hours alone, 75 Palestinians were killed. 38 bodies were recovered and more than 200 people wounded. Officials warned that many victims remain trapped beneath rubble inaccessible to rescuers.
Israeli strikes on Friday were among the most destructive in recent weeks. Fourteen members of a single family were killed in the al-Tawam area, north of Gaza City.
Additional fatalities were recorded in Jabalia al-Nazla, Gaza City’s Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan districts, and in al-Shati refugee camp, where a school sheltering displaced families and a tent encampment came under attack. Further casualties were reported in Rafah, Khan Younis, al-Sudaniya, and Deir al-Balah. Witnesses alleged that Israeli forces employed booby-trapped robots to demolish residential buildings in Gaza City.
Parallel to the air campaign, Israel has intensified a systematic demolition of high-rise towers under what it has termed Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2.
On Friday, the al-Safadi Tower and surrounding apartment blocks were destroyed in Gaza City’s al-Nasr neighbourhood. At least eight towers and dozens of residential buildings have been levelled over the past week. Gaza’s Civil Defence accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilian housing to drive mass displacement under conditions of famine and disease.
The offensive has deepened Israel’s international isolation. Proceedings are under way at the International Court of Justice in a genocide case against Israel, while the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister on charges of war crimes.
Diplomatic tensions have also widened. The United Arab Emirates summoned Israel’s deputy ambassador to protest what it called a “cowardly and reckless” strike on Qatar, after Netanyahu compared the incident to the US pursuit of al-Qaeda. Qatar condemned his remarks as a violation of its sovereignty.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have detained more than 1,000 Palestinians in a large-scale operation in Tulkarm, now in its second day. Troops sealed the city’s entrances, conducted house raids, and subjected young men to field interrogations. The city’s governor denounced the raids as “collective punishment”. Israeli media linked the operation to a roadside bomb attack on an armoured vehicle near a checkpoint on Thursday, claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The General Assembly’s endorsement of the New York Declaration represents the most significant expression of international consensus on Palestinian statehood in years. Yet the chasm between diplomatic resolutions and realities on the ground has rarely appeared wider, with the humanitarian toll in Gaza mounting daily and the political path to peace still mired in uncertainty.
[Photo: Palestinians being forced to flee after the Israeli army carried out bombing of their homes and buildings at Nasr neighborhood – where several buildings were destroyed and rendered completely unusable in Gaza City, Gaza, on September 12, 2025. Photojournalist: Khames Alrefi/AA]
