UN emergency meeting on Israel to resume Friday morning

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 26: Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, speaks at the General Assembly during the 10th Emergency Special Session at the 39th plenary meeting at the United Nations on October 26, 2023 in New York City. The U.N. continues to meet to discuss the status of the Palestinians and the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

An emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the Israel-Hamas war will resume Friday morning, with about 100 speakers remaining.

“Stop the bombs and save lives!” the Palestinian ambassador demanded Thursday at the U.N. meeting as Israel continued to pound Gaza with airstrikes. However, the Israeli envoy declared again, "We will not rest until Hamas is obliterated." 

The war sparked by Gaza’s Hamas rulers’ surprise attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 played out in the vast hall of the 193-nation General Assembly, where Arab nations expected to adopt a resolution Friday calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza after the Security Council’s four failed attempts to agree on any action.

At the assembly’s resumed emergency special session, speaker after speaker backed the Arab resolution’s cease-fire call — except for Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who told the 193-member world body, “A cease-fire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself, so they can massacre us again.”

The non-binding Arab resolution will get a vote Friday afternoon. It calls for an immediate cease-fire and demands that all parties respect international law and protect civilians. 

The Associated Press contributed to th