The UN General Assembly (GA) on Thursday kicked off an emergency session to press for an immediate and durable ceasefire in Gaza despite Israel's efforts to seek the cancellation of the session.

The session was convened as the Gaza conflict entered its 20th day and left more than 1,000 Palestinians killed.

An Israel representative, speaking at the conference room, insists the emergency special session be canceled, on the ground that the Security Council is currently dealing with the Gaza conflict and UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is visiting the Middle East with the endorsement of the 15-member Council.

But Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (GA), went on with opening the special session, saying that "it's ironic that Israel is trying to silence the General Assembly."

Cuba, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement countries which requested the convocation of the special session, voiced strong support for the event.

"We met in this emergency session because too many people have died, particularly too many women and children have died," the GA president said. "We here at the United Nations Headquarters have remained passive for too long when the carnage continues."

"If this onslaught in Gaza is indeed a war, it is a war against a helpless, defenseless, imprisoned population," he said.

"During this assault, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, one-third of them children," he noted. "More bodies remain buried under the rubble, out of reach of humanitarian workers because the shelling is too intense -- the living would be killed trying to reach the dead."

"Despite urgent efforts at the United Nations and elsewhere, the situation on the ground remains extremely dire for the civilian populations," Asha-Rose Migiro, the UN deputy secretary-general, said as she was addressing the emergency special session. "The continued violence and suffering is unacceptable."

"The fighting must come to an end, and it must do so now. The rockets must stop. Israel's offensive must end," Migiro said. "Security Council Resolution 1860, now a week old, must be respected."

Meanwhile, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the special session that "we are anguished by the horrific scenes emerging from Gaza of the brutal killing, injury and dismemberment of innocent Palestinian civilians, including so many children and their families, the displacement of tens of thousands of people, and the vast destruction of homes and infrastructure and the very foundations of Palestinian society in this latest deadly Israeli military campaign against the Palestinian people, now in its 20th day."

"And yet, we have not given up hope and we maintain our resolve to bring an end to this human disaster, the latest chapter in a tragic story of a stateless, dispossessed and persecuted people that continues to struggle, appeal and plea for justice and freedom in its homeland," he said.

The emergency special session came as UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is visiting the Middle East to join international diplomatic efforts for an early implementation of the Security Council resolution. The meeting was originally scheduled for last week but was put off after the Security Council voted to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire in Gaza.

However, the new Security Council resolution went unheeded by both Israel and Hamas. The Israelis launched the military offensive against Gaza to stamp out the firing of rockets into southern Israel by Hamas militants.

The urgent GA session was called after the Israeli shelling of the United Nations compound in Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli shelling was immediately condemned by the European Union.

The meeting was held "to send a strong message that the international community is fully in favor of an immediate ceasefire," said Enrique Yeves, spokesman for the GA president.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2009)