Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, warning that his people were enduring what he described as a “war of genocide, destruction, starvation, and displacement” under Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Speaking via video, Abbas said that over the past two years, more than 220,000 Palestinians had been killed or injured, the majority of them women, children, and the elderly. He added that nearly two million people were facing starvation due to the ongoing blockade, while more than 80 percent of Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and infrastructure had been destroyed.
“What Israel is carrying out is not merely an aggression; it is a war crime and a crime against humanity,” he declared, calling it “one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in modern history.”
Abbas also condemned increasing settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, warning that the “Greater Israel” project aimed at dividing the territory, isolating Jerusalem, and undermining prospects for a two-state solution. He noted that attacks on religious sites, including mosques, churches, and cemeteries in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Gaza, had further deepened the crisis.
While strongly denouncing Israel’s actions, Abbas also criticized the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, insisting that such actions “do not represent the Palestinian people nor their just struggle for freedom and independence.”
Reaffirming that Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian state, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority was prepared to assume full responsibility for governance and security there under the principle of “one state, one law, and one legal security force.” He emphasized that Palestinians seek a democratic state grounded in the rule of law, peaceful political transitions, human rights, and empowerment of youth and women.
Turning to the international community, Abbas lamented that more than 1,000 UN resolutions on Palestine remain unimplemented. He argued that Palestinians had upheld their commitments since the 1993 Oslo Accords, while Israel had systematically undermined them.
He welcomed the outcomes of a recent high-level conference in New York co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, thanking the growing number of countries that have recognized Palestine. He urged other nations to support full UN membership for the State of Palestine and commit to the newly adopted peace plan.
“Peace cannot be achieved if justice is not achieved, and there can be no justice if Palestine is not freed,” Abbas said, pledging readiness to work with the United States, Saudi Arabia, France, the UN, and other partners to secure lasting peace.
He concluded with a message of resilience: “No matter how long the suffering lasts, it will not break our will to live and survive. The dawn of freedom will emerge, and the flag of Palestine will fly high in our skies as a symbol of dignity and steadfastness.”