Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations Basic Meeting on the United Nations Headquarters in New York, US, on September 26, 2024. | Photograph credit score: Reuters
The top of the Palestinian Authority denounced Israel and its offensive within the Gaza Strip in entrance of world leaders on Thursday (September 26, 2024), interesting to different nations to cease what he known as a “genocidal conflict” in opposition to a spot and a city that, he stated, had been utterly destroyed.
Mahmoud Abbas used the platform of the UN Basic Meeting as he often does: to criticize Israel. However this was the primary time he had carried out so because the Hamas assaults on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered an Israeli navy operation that devastated the Gaza Strip.
Abbas took the rostrum to loud applause and a few unintelligible shouts. His first phrases had been a phrase repeated 3 times: “We won’t depart. We can’t depart. “We aren’t leaving.”
He accused Israel of destroying Gaza and making it uninhabitable. And he stated his authorities ought to govern postwar Gaza as a part of an unbiased Palestinian state, a imaginative and prescient that Israel’s hardline authorities rejects.
Abbas has had little affect in Gaza since Hamas overthrew his forces and seized energy within the territory in 2007. His internationally acknowledged authorities administers solely small semi-autonomous areas within the occupied West Financial institution. America has stated a reformed Palestinian Authority ought to play a future function in Gaza, however Israel doesn’t contemplate it a dependable companion and has dominated it out.
“Palestine is our homeland. It’s the land of our mother and father and our grandparents. It can stay ours. And if anybody left, it will be the usurping occupiers,” he acknowledged.
Israel has maintained that its navy operations are justified and essential to defend itself. South Africa has introduced a genocide case in opposition to Israel to the UN’s prime courtroom. Israel rejects the accusations.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, responded to Abbas’ speech a couple of minutes later with a important evaluation. “Abbas spoke for 26 minutes and didn’t utter the phrase ‘Hamas’ even as soon as. Because the October 7 bloodbath, Abbas has not condemned Hamas for its crimes in opposition to humanity,” he acknowledged.
“Solely when he’s on the UN platform does he discuss a peaceable answer,” Danon stated. “There is no such thing as a better hypocrisy and lie than this: Abbas’ legacy is one in all power weak spot within the face of terrorism and hatred.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Basic Meeting on Friday and arrived in New York shortly earlier than Abbas spoke. Netanyahu’s go to is predicted to spark protests within the neighborhood the place the UN advanced is situated. A sequence of nationwide campus protests in opposition to Israel’s operations in Gaza swept the US within the spring, originating largely at Columbia College, about 70 blocks north of the United Nations.
“The American individuals are marching into the streets in these demonstrations. We’re grateful to them,” Abbas stated.
Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza has killed greater than 41,500 Palestinians and injured greater than 96,000, in accordance with the most recent figures launched Thursday by the Well being Ministry. The ministry, a part of the Hamas authorities in Gaza, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, however greater than half of the lifeless have been girls and youngsters, together with about 1,300 kids underneath 2 years previous.
Israel started its response after Hamas attackers sneaked throughout the border into Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 folks and taking about 250 extra hostage. The Netanyahu authorities’s response was swift and fierce and has continued ever since.
In latest days, Israel has centered its consideration on the border with Lebanon, the place it’s attacking Hezbollah militants and in addition inflicting civilian casualties.
Hezbollah started attacking Israel nearly instantly after the Hamas invasion, and continued preventing between Israel and the Lebanese militant group has pushed tens of 1000’s of individuals from their properties on either side of the border. Israel vows to accentuate its assaults in opposition to Hezbollah till its residents can safely return to their properties.
On Wednesday evening, the US, France and different allies collectively known as for an “quick” 21-day ceasefire to permit negotiations as fears develop that the violent escalation of latest days, following 11 months of exchanges of cross-border hearth, might flip into an all-out conflict.
The United Nations says greater than 90,000 folks have been displaced by 5 days of Israeli assaults in Lebanon, bringing the entire to 200,000 individuals who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah started firing rockets into northern Israel in help for Hamas after it broke into Israel, inflicting conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Abbas spent a lot of his speech on the United Nations speaking in regards to the state of life in Gaza and painted a bleak image.
“Total surnames have been erased from the civil registry,” he stated. “Gaza is now not match for all times. Many of the homes have been destroyed. The identical applies to a lot of the buildings… Roads, church buildings, mosques, water vegetation, energy vegetation, sanitation vegetation. Anybody that he had gone to Gaza and met it earlier than I’d now not acknowledge him.”
Amongst their calls for, none of that are new: a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, not “buffer zones.” Enable Palestinians displaced from Gaza (roughly 90% of the inhabitants) to return to their properties. And a central function for Abbas’s authorities in any future Gaza.
“Cease this crime. Cease now. Cease killing kids and ladies. Cease the genocide. Cease sending weapons to Israel. This insanity can’t proceed. “Your entire world is liable for what is going on to our folks in Gaza and the West Financial institution.”
Printed – September 26, 2024 10:31 pm IST
