Stop shipping arms to Israel, pleads Palestinian President Abbas at UN, AFP reports from New York today.
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UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas appealed to the international community Thursday to end Israel's arming to put an end to bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza, calling specifically the United States into account.
Abbas said that despite mounting deaths now at 41,534 according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run strip, Washington continues to provide diplomatic cover and weapons to Israel for its conflict in Gaza.
“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue.
The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank,“ Abbas said in an address to the UN General Assembly.
Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strike on school
The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the conflict with many seeking shelter in school buildings. “The US alone stood and said: ‘No, the fighting will continue.’ It did this by using the veto,” he said, referring to the veto repeatedly wielded to thwart censure in the UN Security Council of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
“It furnished Israel with the deadly weapons that it used to kill thousands of innocent civilians, children, and women. This further encouraged Israel to continuous aggression,” he added, saying that Israel “does not deserve” to be in the UN.
Washington is Israel’s closest ally and backer, supplying the nation with billions of dollars of aid and military material.
Attacks on Israel’s UN Membership
The speech by Abbas comes months after the General Assembly voted that the State of Palestine merited full membership. As world leaders opened their speeches on Tuesday, Abbas could take his seat alongside the Palestinian delegation, seated in the General Assembly in alphabetical position.
In his address, Abbas said Israel’s defiance of the United Nations, which it often calls biased, showed the country should not be part of the world body. “Israel, which refuses to implement United Nations resolutions, does not deserve to be a member of this international organization,” Abbas said.
Gaza school strike
Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike on Thursday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people. Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “15 martyrs, including children and women, and several wounded, some of them seriously, following an Israeli bombardment of Al Faluja school in Jabalia camp in north Gaza”. Bassal earlier said the death toll was seven.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al Jawni School in central Gaza on Sep 11 drew an international outcry after the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
At least 41,534 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the conflict began, according to data provided by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
Residents said Israeli forces operating in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and in Zeitoun, a suburb of Gaza City, had blown up several homes in both areas as the military continued its operations there.
Peace hopes
Months of diplomatic efforts at reaching a Gaza ceasefire came to little, as Israel refused to accept any deal to halt its fighting without the total defeat of Hamas. In the last week, Israel also unleashed some of the largest airstrikes on Lebanon in nearly two decades, targeting Hezbollah, which has been firing into Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On Wednesday, the United States, France, and a few other allies called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border while also backing a Gaza ceasefire after intense discussions at the United Nations. In Gaza, many Palestinians voiced hope that a deal to end the war in Lebanon would also bring an end to the fighting in the Palestinian enclave.
Since Oct 8, Hassan Nasrallah has pre-conditioned ending the strikes of Hezbollah on ending Israeli crimes and the war on Gaza. This is a big gate of hope that peace may prevail in Lebanon and Gaza, Tamer Al Burai, a Palestinian businessman from Gaza City who is currently displaced in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said.
"We are in solidarity with the people of Lebanon and we do not want anyone to be harmed as Gaza was," Burai said through the messaging app.
Fears were also voiced that the settlement in Lebanon would pave the way for increased mobility for Israel in Gaza. However, Abed Abu Mustafa, a Gaza City resident, believes Nasrallah will continue to support the Palestinian enclave.
The health ministry in Gaza accuses the Israeli army of "inhumane" treatment of exhumed bodies, saying they threw a container containing scores of dead Palestinians without documentation.
The Gaza health ministry said the Israeli army sent back a container on Wednesday containing 88 bodies "without any data or information that could help identify" them.
Published in Nook Media , September 27th, 2024
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