The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday passed two resolutions directing Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza as well the Syrian Golan Heights.
Both texts were adopted with large majorities opposing Israel's current territorial stance.
What did the resolutions say?
The first resolution, "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine," passed with 151 votes in favor, 11 against and 11 abstentions. It called for urgent efforts to restart negotiations on all final-status issues and urged convening an international conference in Moscow to push forward a comprehensive peace settlement.
The choice of Moscow as a venue conforms with a 2008 resolution reiterating the vision of a two-state solution with Israel and an independent Palestinian state.
The text issues several direct demands on Israel. It orders Israel to end what it calls Israel's "unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." It demands that Israel halt all new settlement construction and evacuate all settlers from the territory. It also rejects any attempt to alter Gaza's demographics or borders and calls for the enclave's immediate political reunification with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.
The resolution restates that Israel must withdraw from all Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and reiterates Palestinian rights to self-determination and a just solution for refugees.
A second resolution, "The Syrian Golan," passed with 123 votes in favor, 7 against and 41 abstentions. It declares Israel's 1981 move to apply its laws and administration to the territory null and void, calls for that decision to be reversed, and demands Israel's withdrawal to its 1967 border with Syria.
1967 is the year in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War. The UN has since treated all of these areas as occupied territories whose final status cannot be changed unilaterally.
The resolution on the Palestinian territories follows decades of UN positions affirming that the territories captured by Israel in 1967 are occupied and that settlement activity has no legal validity, while the Syrian Golan resolution reflects the UN's long-standing view that Israel's 1981 move to apply its laws there constitutes an unlawful annexation. Both texts restate these established positions and call for full withdrawal to the 1967 lines.
Unlike resolutions from the UN Security Council, these ones were not legally binding. Although the Palestinian Territories belong to several UN bodies, the body does not as a whole recognize a sovereign Palestinian state.
Rafah crossing to reopen for Palestinian refugees to leave
In separate news on Wednesday, Israel said it would partially reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the coming days as part of its ceasefire agreement with Hamas, but only to allow Palestinians to leave the enclave.
COGAT, the Israeli body responsible for coordinating policy in the Palestinian Territories, said the crossing would open "exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt."
