The UN General Assembly advocates for a Palestinian state alongside Israel and calls on Hamas to release the hostages.

BarcelonaThe UN General Assembly voted this Friday by a large majority (142 states in favor, 10 against, and 12 abstentions) on a resolution to revive the so-called two-state solution: a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It did so the day after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared that a Palestinian state will never exist. Israel, increasingly isolated internationally, has condemned the resolution and called the body a "political circus." Some of Tel Aviv's allies, such as Germany, voted in favor; its most belligerent supporters, the United States, Argentina, and Hungary, voted against it.

The resolution, proposed by France and Saudi Arabia, calls for "collective action to end the Gaza war and reach a peaceful and lasting solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, based on the effective implementation of the two-state solution." The same seven-page document urges Hamas to release all hostages, abandon the government of Gaza, and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, "in line with the goal of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state."

The text, however, does not specify the "plan of action" or the "mechanisms to end the Israeli colonial occupation and achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people." It is a response to the approval by Netanyahu's executive of a plan to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. The resolution is also a call for the resumption of the negotiating process after Israel bombed Hamas delegation in Doha on Tuesday while studying the ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States.

The resolution is the prelude to the summit sponsored by Paris and Riyadh on September 22 in New York, within the framework of the annual UN assembly, in which French President Emmanuel Macron and the governments ofSpain, Norway, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have pledged to formally recognize the Palestinian state, as have 146 other countries around the world.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the resolution "shameful" and criticized its failure to refer to Hamas as a "terrorist" organization.