Abbas accuses 'war crime' in Gaza

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stood his ground that Israel was not merely carrying out just "aggression", but committing a "war crime and crime against humanity", as he rejected the "Greater Israel" plan during his virtual address on Thursday at the United Nations General Assembly.

He called out the "extremist Israeli government" for its continued settlement project in the West Bank despite international rejection, even including from Israel's staunchest ally, the United States, as Abbas reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional delivery of aid and the end of using starvation as a weapon.

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday that he "will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank" and said there has been enough and that it was "time to stop now". But Israel's far-right lawmakers are urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to defy Trump.

Abbas, who addressed the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, received cheers from the audience for appearing via video link after the US refused the Palestinian delegation a visa.

The Palestinian President also noted that a "suffocating siege" has been imposed on an entire people, destroying more than 80 percent of homes, schools, hospitals, churches, mosques and infrastructure.

"What Israel is carrying out is not just aggression — it is a war crime and a crime against humanity, documented and monitored, and it will be recorded in history books and in the conscience of humanity as one of the most horrific chapters of human tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries," Abbas said.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Palestine, he said, Israel continues implementing colonial policies through illegal settlement expansion and annexation projects.

Abbas pointed out the latest being the construction plan in E1, which divides the West Bank, isolates occupied Jerusalem from its surroundings, "and destroys the two-state solution, in blatant violation of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions".

"Our people must no longer remain hostage to the whims of Israeli politics that continue to deny our basic rights and perpetuate oppression, injustice, and aggression," he added.

Abbas' speech comes after a new UN report concluded that the Israeli government "has demonstrated a clear and consistent intent to establish permanent control over the Gaza Strip" while ensuring a Jewish majority in the occupied West Bank and inside Israel.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, said Israeli authorities "extensively and systematically" demolished civilian infrastructure in the corridors and buffer zone and continuously enlarged areas under their control, reaching 75 percent of the Gaza Strip by July 2025.

In destroying civilian objects and forcibly transferring the population, the report said, Israeli authorities "deliberately deprived Palestinians in Gaza of resources indispensable for their survival" and deliberately inflicted conditions of life on the Palestinians in Gaza calculated to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza, "which is an underlying act of genocide".

Urgent need to ceasefire

"Israel must immediately end and reverse its confiscation and use of Palestinian land in Gaza, including for the creation and expansion of the buffer zone and corridors. It must return all confiscated land to its Palestinian owners," said Navi Pillay, chair of the commission, adding that Israeli confiscation and control of land did not achieve security purposes but "have deepened the misery of the Palestinian people".

Belal Alakhras, research fellow at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, said Israeli leadership has "fundamentally miscalculated" the events.

"Israel's bet that overwhelming brutality to kill tens of thousands, injure many more, and induce famine would crush Palestinian will and restore deterrence has backfired spectacularly. It has apparently shattered their path to regional acceptance, unmasking the raw nature of the occupation for the world to see," said Alakhras.

He said the gravest mistake, however, is for the international community "to continue treating this as a localized conflict in Gaza".

For influential factions in both Washington and Israel, the devastation in Gaza is not an endpoint but a blueprint, Alakhras said. "It marks the beginning of a more aggressive, militarized foreign policy intended to reshape the region and beyond," he added.

jan@chinadailyapac.com