PALESTINIAN Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has decried Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon, calling out “the extremist Israeli government” for its continued settlement projects that make a future Palestinian state virtually impossible.
The 89-year-old addressed world leaders gathered for the United Nations General Assembly via videolink on Thursday after being refused a visa by the United States to travel to New York.
“I speak to you today after almost two years in which our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been facing a war of genocide, destruction, starvation and displacement,” Abbas said.
The Palestinian leader began his speech by denouncing Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed at least 65,419 people and wounded 167,160 since October 2023, according to local health authorities. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of homes and office buildings devastated by Israeli air strikes.
A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, and roughly 200 were taken captive to Gaza.
“What Israel is carrying out is not merely an aggression,” Abbas said.
“It is a war crime and a crime against humanity that is both documented and monitored, and it will be recorded in history books and the pages of international conscience as one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.”
The UN outlined Israel’s plans to destroy life in Gaza in a report released on Tuesday, which found that Israeli forces have “systematically destroyed” civilian life across Gaza over the past two years.
“Since October 2023, Israeli officials have demonstrated a clear and consistent intent to establish permanent military control over Gaza and to change its demographic composition while systematically destroying Palestinian life in Gaza,” the report said. It cited Israeli demolition of wells, sewage-pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants as well as the destruction of educational institutions, mosques and cemeteries.
Last week, a UN inquiry found that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, a landmark moment after nearly two years of conflict that critics have called a war of vengeance without any specific goals.
Israel’s assault on Gaza intensified this week with at least 85 Palestinians killed across the territory on Wednesday.
Despite the ongoing hostilities, Abbas was clear about Hamas. He soundly rejected the group’s actions on October 7, 2023, saying the targeting of civilians and taking of captives does “not represent the Palestinian people, nor do they represent their just struggle for freedom and independence”.
Abbas insisted “Hamas will not have a role to play in governance,” saying Hamas and other factions will have to hand over their weapons as part of a state-building process.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved forward last week with a settlement expansion plan in the West Bank that would make any future Palestinian state virtually impossible.
The Israeli leader signed an agreement to move forward with the project, which would bisect the West Bank, saying he was fulfilling his promise that “there will be no Palestinian state”.
Abbas called this plan “a blatant violation of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions”.