The UN General Assembly will hold an urgent meeting today (Thursday) to discuss the grave situation in the Occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, as Israel presses on with its deadly aggression in Gaza and West Bank.

The session is in response to a request from the chairmen of the OIC Group at the UN and the Arab Group in a joint letter to the 193-member Assembly President Volkan Bozkir of Turkey.

Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun, who is the president of the Security Council this month, has vowed to push for UN Security Council action to defuse Israeli-Palestinian tension.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram in an interview with CNN said it is most regrettable that the Security Council has remained paralyzed in this crisis.

He said the world expects that at the very least the Council will call for an immediate halt to the hostilities and prevent the killing of more innocent children, women and men.