Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to issue a stark warning against another mass displacement of Palestinians, saying the international community must act before the conflict permanently changes the character of Gaza and the West Bank.
“Do not allow another Nakba to occur,” Abbas told world leaders. “Do not allow further massacres like those that occurred in 1948.” Abbas delivered his address by prerecorded video from Ramallah after the United States denied him a visa for the second consecutive year. The UN General Assembly had earlier voted to allow him and other senior Palestinian officials to participate remotely after Washington barred them from travelling to the US.
His speech focused heavily on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and what he described as an accelerating campaign of settlement expansion and displacement in the West Bank.
Abbas accuses Israel of Gaza destruction
Abbas accused Israeli forces of subjecting Palestinians in Gaza to killing, destruction, starvation and attempts at displacement. He described the campaign as a “genocidal war” and said the destruction had extended across neighbourhoods, cities, refugee camps and civilian infrastructure.
According to Abbas, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and churches had been damaged or destroyed, while the conflict had also targeted what he called the basic necessities of life and the future of an entire generation.
His characterisation of the war reflects the Palestinian leadership’s longstanding position on Israel’s military campaign. Israel rejects accusations of genocide and says its military operations are directed at Hamas and other armed groups rather than the Palestinian population.
The Gaza war has remained one of the central issues at this year’s UNGA, alongside the wider Middle East conflict and the question of Palestinian statehood.
Warning over West Bank and East Jerusalem
Abbas then shifted his focus to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where he accused Israel of accelerating settlement expansion and fragmenting Palestinian territory. He alleged that settler violence was increasing under the protection of Israeli forces and pointed to land confiscations, home demolitions, checkpoints and military raids as part of what he described as a broader system aimed at pushing Palestinians from their homeland.
“These are not isolated incidents,” Abbas said, describing developments in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of what he called a “colonial scheme” designed to make Palestinian life increasingly difficult and encourage people to leave.
Abbas warned that the consequences extended beyond individual communities, arguing that the developments were undermining the territorial basis required for a Palestinian state. “We have long warned the international community through the UN General Assembly and through the Security Council that these Israeli policies … would destroy the two-state solution,” he said.
‘The Palestinian people will not disappear’
Abbas framed the issue as a test of whether the international community would act to prevent another mass displacement.
“What is this international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people, ensure their continued presence on their land, end the Israeli occupation, and implement the two-state solution?” he asked.
He also rejected any prospect of Palestinians being permanently displaced from their homeland. “The Palestinian people will remain on their land,” Abbas said. “The Palestinian people will not accept displacement and will not disappear.”
The address placed the two-state solution at the centre of Abbas’s appeal, with the Palestinian president calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and warning that continued settlement expansion and displacement would make such a settlement increasingly difficult.
From Ramallah, Abbas therefore delivered a message aimed directly at the international community: prevent further displacement, protect Palestinian presence in the territory and act before, in his words, another Nakba becomes a reality.