'Palestinians won't leave,' President Abbas tells world leaders at UN
- Last updated: September 25, 2025 | 22:42
Speaking over video after the United States denied his visa, the Palestinian leader told world leaders on Thursday that his people reject the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and pledged that the group would have no role in governing the Gaza Strip after war ends and must hand over its weapons to his administration.
Abbas told the UN General Assembly that Palestinians in Gaza "have been facing a war of genocide, destruction, starvation and displacement” by Israel. Abbas ends virtual UN speech by saying that despite deadly war, Palestinians "will not leave our homeland."
In a short but resolute speech, Abbas lay out his continued vision for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel.
"There can be no justice if Palestine is not freed,” Abbas said. He said the Palestinian Authority is "ready to bear full responsibility for governance and security” in Gaza.
Abbas pledged at the United Nations on Thursday to work with US President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia, France and the United Nations on a peace plan for Gaza overwhelmingly backed by the world body.
The 89-year-old Abbas spoke for only 20 minutes - shorter than his previous addresses, which often ran over an hour. In it, he sought to build on the growing, but largely symbolic recognition of statehood to present his government as an alternative to Hamas - and to Israel's plans.
Abbas thanked the world leaders who have stood up for Palestinians throughout the Gaza war, saying that the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood has presented his people with hope for peace and an end to the conflict.
He welcomed the recent announcements from France, the UK and Canada to recognise them as an independent state and called for the remains few dozen countries to do the same. But, he added, symbolic recognition is not enough to address the present moment.
"The time has come for the international community to do right by the Palestinian people, so that they may obtain their rights for their legitimate rights to be rid of the occupation and to not remain a hostage to the temperament of Israeli politics, which denies our rights and continue in their injustice, oppression and aggression,” Abbas said.
Before concluding, he sent a message of hope to the Palestinian people, saying that no matter how long the suffering continues, "its results will not break our will to live and survive.”
Israel struck houses and tents in central and southern Gaza on Thursday, crushing families inside and killing at least 17 Palestinians, including 10 children and three women, local health officials said, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to grow.
In the early hours Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a tent and a house in the central town of Zawaida, killing at least 12 people, according to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir Al Balah.
Among the dead were a couple and their five of their children, along with three other children. AP footage showed the building collapsed into a pile of rubble - the dust-covered arm of a child sticking out from under a slab of concrete. Relatives said another child was still missing under the wreckage.
Another strike hit a tent in Deir Al Balah, killing a girl and wounding seven people, the hospital said.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, an Israeli attack hit an apartment building, killing a man, his pregnant wife and their 10-year-old child as well as a female relative, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Agencies