Summary
The General Assembly’s resolution 79/232, adopted on 19 December 2024, which, prompted by the Secretary-General’s letters of 28 October and 9 December 2024 on developments that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work, demands Israel comply without delay with all its legal obligations, endorses UNRWA’s continued operations and full implementation of the 50 Colonna Report recommendations, calls on Israel to rescind measures obstructing basic services and assistance and to abide by the Charter and the Privileges and Immunities Convention, and in paragraph 10 requests the International Court of Justice, on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency, to render an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations as occupying Power and as a United Nations member in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States, including ensuring unhindered provision of supplies essential to survival in support of Palestinian self-determination (Resolution 79/232: Request for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States (19 December 2024), PDF p.1-5).
What the file is
United Nations document A/RES/79/232, General Assembly, Distr.: General, 19 December 2024, Seventy-ninth session, Agenda item 123, 5 PDF pages, about 2,282 words in the text copy. Adopted at the 54th plenary meeting on 19 December 2024, without reference to a Main Committee (A/79/L.28/Rev.1). The text copy is clean and matches the original apart from the footnote discrepancy held under Open questions. No vote count is given in the file.
Section by section
- Preamble (PDF p.1-2). Charter, self-determination and inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by force; the Secretary-General’s 28 October 2024 letter (A/79/558), the possible United Nations–Israel difference over the Privileges and Immunities Convention, and the 9 December 2024 letter; resolution 2334 (2016), resolution 77/247 and the 19 July 2024 advisory opinion recalled, with the opinion’s self-determination holdings restated; resolution ES-10/24 recalled.
- Preamble continued (PDF p.2-3). Grave concern at Israeli legislation and measures obstructing the United Nations and UNRWA; the Council members’ press statement of 30 October 2024, with UNRWA as backbone and irreplaceable; displacement from impeded assistance; the Court’s article 49 forcible-transfer finding; dependence of essential assistance on UNRWA’s presence, facilitation and immunities; the view that additional questions supplementing the 2024 opinion are demanded, on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency.
- Operative paragraphs 1-10 (PDF p.4-5). Paragraph 1 expresses grave concern at the humanitarian situation; paragraph 2 demands Israel’s compliance without delay; paragraph 3 calls on all parties to comply; paragraphs 4-5 appreciate the Secretary-General and UNRWA, endorse continued operations under resolution 77/123 and the Colonna action plan; paragraph 6 reiterates self-determination support; paragraph 7 calls on Israel to rescind obstructing measures; paragraph 8 calls on Israel to abide by the Charter and the Convention to ensure personnel safety, institutional protection and facility security, and not to impede third States; paragraph 9 supports the United Nations’ conflict-resolution role and the two-State solution; paragraph 10 makes the request, its question reproduced in the Key passages, framed by the 2004 and 2024 opinions and the benefit-of-the-local-population and no-sovereignty holdings.
Key passages
- “What are the obligations of Israel, as an occupying Power and as a member of the United Nations, in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, including its agencies and bodies, other international organizations and third States, in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population as well as of basic services and humanitarian and development assistance, for the benefit of the Palestinian civilian population, and in support of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination?” (operative paragraph 10, PDF p.5)
Evidence the work relies on
A General Assembly resolution, not an evidentiary work. Its stated bases are the Secretary-General’s letters of 28 October 2024 (A/79/558) and 9 December 2024 (A/79/684-S/2024/892), the Council members’ press statement of 30 October 2024, the Court’s advisory opinions of 9 July 2004 and 19 July 2024, and the Charter and Privileges and Immunities Convention. It gives no figures for aid, refugees or personnel.
Analysis
This is the third Article 96 request in the wiki’s sequence, and the narrowest in subject — not the wall or the occupation’s status, but the legal position of the United Nations itself — while the broadest in its framing of Israel’s double capacity, as occupying Power and as Member State. Its trigger is institutional: a Secretary-General’s letter warning that the Agency the Assembly created might be prevented from working, answered by asking the Court to supplement an opinion delivered five months earlier.
People, organizations, places and events
UN General Assembly Resolution 79/232, UNRWA, International Court of Justice, Gaza
Concepts
Self-determination, Two-state solution
How it relates to other sources
- Resolution ES-10/27: Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations (12 June 2025) paragraph 8 recalls this request while the opinion was still pending.
- Resolution 80/116: Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States (12 December 2025) welcomes the opinion of 22 October 2025 that this request produced and reproduces the question in full.
- Resolution ES-10/25: Support for the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (11 December 2024), adopted eight days earlier, defends the same mandate against the same Knesset legislation without the Court route.
Open questions
- No vote count is given in the file.
- Footnote 1 gives the Secretary-General’s 28 October 2024 letter as A/79/558 (PDF p.1), while footnote 7 cites the aforementioned letter as A/79/588 (PDF p.3); both are kept as printed and not reconciled.
- The Knesset legislation is described as adopted but is not named or dated in this file; ES-10/25 dates it 28 October 2024.
Coverage
PDF p.1-5 of 5, read in full.