GENEVA: A long-standing resolution urging WHO action on towering health needs in the Palestinian territories hung in the balance Friday, after Israel secured an amendment requiring the text to mention hostages held in Gaza.
The largely technical text presented on Wednesday by a group of Arab countries, including the Palestinians, to the World Health Organization’s supreme decision-making body, had been expected to pass easily, as similar resolutions have done annually for more than 50 years.
But before the text could go to a vote, Israel surprisingly secured enough support to demand it be amended to include a call for the release of the hostages held in Gaza, and a condemnation of the militarization of hospitals in the territory by Hamas.
The Arab Group then attempted to retract the resolution, but was informed that doing so once an amendment had already been voted through was against the rules.
It remained unclear what would happen on Friday when the issue again comes to the floor of the World Health Assembly — the annual gathering in Geneva of the WHO’s 194 member states.
One option for Arab countries was to vote against their own resolution to avoid approving a text including the Israeli amendment.
But it appeared they would rather try to push through an amendment of their own, beefing up criticism of Israel in the resolution.
Prior to the amendments, this year’s draft text urged a donor conference to address soaring health needs in Gaza and across the Palestinian territories.
It also requested reporting on the dire health crisis in Gaza, including on Israel’s “wanton destruction of health facilities” in the coastal strip.
Before voting began on Wednesday, Israel’s Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar told the assembly that any decision “that does not demand the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages is an unforgivable moral failure.”
A majority of countries had been expected to vote down Israel’s amendment.
But after Shahar demanded a roll-call vote, meaning each state had to publicly announce its stance, it became clear it would be tight.
Basically, all Arab and Muslim countries opposed the amendment, supported by among others heavyweights China and Russia.
The United States and most European nations backed it, while the picture was mixed elsewhere.
In the end, the amendment passed, with 50 votes in favor and 44 opposed, while 83 countries were either absent or abstained.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,224 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Suspense abounds over Palestinian health resolution at WHO
https://arab.news/z9t43
Suspense abounds over Palestinian health resolution at WHO
- Before the text could go to a vote, Israel surprisingly secured enough support to demand it be amended to include a call for the release of the hostages held in Gaza
- The Arab Group then attempted to retract the resolution, but was informed that doing so once an amendment had already been voted through was against the rules
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
