‘Madness’: Palestinian President Abbas urges UN to stop the war in Gaza

‘This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people,’ Abbas told the UN General Assembly

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A Palestinian woman holds a cat as she walks pas the rubble of houses destroyed in the Israel’s military offensive in Khan Younis. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:28pm, 26 Sep 2024Updated: 12:45am, 27 Sep 2024

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the UN General Assembly on Thursday to stop the war in Gaza 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,” Abbas told the 193-member General Assembly.

The war began on October 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 levelled swathes 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.

Palestinians at the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war. Photo: Reuters

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.