“Palestine will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it will be the occupying usurpers,” he declared.

He began by highlighting that Palestinians have endured nearly a year of what he described as one of the most heinous crimes of our time.

“It is the crime of a full-scale war of genocide that Israel is perpetrating. A crime that has killed more than 40,000 martyrs in Gaza alone, and thousands remain under the rubble. A crime that has injured more than 100,000 injured to this day.”

He pointed out that whole Palestinian families have been annihilated, their family names completely erased. He also stressed that amid the onslaught, diseases are spreading, clean water and vital medicines are in scarce supply, and over two million Palestinians have been displaced, many forced to flee multiple times in search of safety.

The deaths and injuries continue unabated, not only in Gaza but in the West Bank and in Jerusalem.

President Abbas underscored that he was not speaking today “to respond to the lies” of the Israeli Prime Minister, who claimed before the US Congress in July that Israeli forces did not kill innocent civilians in Gaza.

“I ask you, who is it then that killed more than 15,000 children of the 40,000 and an equal number of women and elderly persons. And who is it then that is continuing to kill them, I ask you?”

More to follow…