Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks via video link to the UN General Assembly after being barred from traveling to New York. Image: Sky News.
(The Post News) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, condemning Israel’s Gaza war as a “war of genocide” while rejecting Hamas’ claim to govern the enclave in any peace deal.
Abbas, 89, appeared by video link after the United States revoked his visa and those of more than 80 Palestinian officials, barring him from addressing the 80th session of the General Assembly. A UN vote of 145–5 allowed him to speak to the assembly by remote link, underlining the deep global rift over Israel’s Gaza war.
“What Israel is committing is not just an aggression. It is an act of war crime and a crime against humanity … one of the worst pages in humanitarian tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Abbas said.
Calls for Ceasefire and Recognition of Palestine
Abbas reiterated demands for an immediate ceasefire, free access by UN agencies, the release of Palestinian and Israeli detainees, and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. He appealed to states that had yet to recognize Palestine to follow the recent wave of approvals by Canada, Australia, the UK, Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and others.
He also demanded Palestine’s full membership in the UN, saying, “Gaza is part of the State of Palestine, and we are prepared to assume full responsibility for the governance and security of Gaza.” In a move aimed at aligning himself with Israel, the US, and its European allies, Abbas firmly rejected Hamas’s possible participation in Gaza’s government. “Due to all that our country has suffered, we condemn what Hamas committed on October 7, and that was to attack Israeli civilians and take them hostage, because such actions do not represent the Palestinian nation,” he said.
Abbas promised that Hamas and the other factions would be compelled to surrender weapons to the Palestinian Authority in an exit strategy. Future governance, he said, would be dedicated to creating a “democratic, modern state committed to international law, the rule of law, pluralism, and the empowerment of women and youth.”
Speaking in the West Bank, Abbas condemned Israel’s settlement expansion, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of advancing a “greater Israel” vision that would kill the two-state solution. “Plans to expand the E1 settlement bloc would bisect the West Bank, put Jerusalem in a straitjacket, and violate international law,” he said.
Netanyahu addresses the UN on Friday. His right-wing partners in the coalition have called for annexing up to 82% of the West Bank in open terms, something France and several Arab states declared to be a “red line.” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that he believed Washington also would not support formal annexation.
Endorsement of International Peace Plan
Abbas endorsed the French-Saudi peace plan, which was launched earlier this week, and demanded the release of hostages, an end to Israel’s military offensive, and an interim government in Gaza without Hamas. He signaled readiness to collaborate with U.S. President Donald Trump, France, Saudi Arabia, and the UN in implementing the plan. “We will not abandon our nation,” Abbas concluded. “Palestine is ours. Jerusalem is the jewel of our heart and our eternal capital.”
The war began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, and took 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has since murdered at least 65,502 Palestinians, with half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, governed by Hamas, reports.
The last Palestinian national elections were held in 2006, when Hamas won a majority and ousted Abbas’s Fatah faction from Gaza by force in 2007. On Thursday, the Palestinian president pledged to hold new presidential and parliamentary elections within one year of the war’s conclusion.
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