Palestinian President Abbas urges UN to stop the war in Gaza

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to stop the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants, saying Israel had almost entirely destroyed Gaza and it was 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.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel's military has leveled swaths of the besieged 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 hostages held by Hamas.

Abbas called for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, 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 centimeter 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, including the border checkpoints, especially the Rafah international border," 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 U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon responded to Abbas' speech in a statement, accusing him of only talking about a peaceful solution when he is at the United Nations and failing to condemn the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that triggered the war in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Howard Goller)