‘Madness cannot continue’: Palestinian president uses UN speech to call for ceasefire

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Key Points
  • Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has used a speech at the United Nations to call for a ceasefire.
  • Abbas urged a full withdrawal of the Israeli military from the enclave.
  • Israel’s UN ambassador responded to Abbas in a statement, criticising his failure to condemn Hamas’ October 7 attack.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the United Nations General Assembly to stop the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants, saying Israel has almost entirely destroyed the enclave and it is no longer fit for life.
“This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people,” he told the 193-member General Assembly on Thursday.
Hamas-led militants stormed Israeli communities on 7 October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Since then, Israel’s military has levelled swaths of the Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying unsuccessfully to broker a ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas.
During his speech, Abbas called for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, an end to attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza and a full withdrawal of the Israeli military from the enclave.

“We refuse the establishment of buffer zones or taking any part from Gaza,” he said. “We will not allow a single centimetre of Gaza to be taken. The State of Palestine must shoulder its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip and impose its full mandate on it and jurisdiction on it,” Abbas said.

He said that the Palestinian Authority, which he leads, should have control over all Palestinian territories and that it would hold elections once the war is over.

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon responded to Abbas’ speech in a statement, accusing him of only talking about a peaceful solution when he is at the UN, and failing to condemn the October 7 attack by Hamas militants that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

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