Palestinian president vows Hamas excluded from postwar Gaza, urges global support

The Palestinian president has pledged that militant group Hamas would have no role in governing Gaza after the war ends and must hand over its weapons.

Mahmoud Abbas, speaking over video after the United States revoked his visa, told world leaders on Thursday that his people “reject” the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Abbas told the UN General Assembly that Palestinians in Gaza “have been facing a war of genocide, destruction, starvation and displacement” by Israel.

His speech came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to New York to give his own address in person on Friday.

Despite laying out in gruesome detail the death and destruction in Gaza, Abbas said Palestinian authorities “reject” the action Hamas carried out on October 7 and that it does not represent their people.

He also laid out his vision for what government would look like in territories once the war is over, saying that the Palestinian Authority is “ready to bear full responsibility for governance and security”.

He added that “Hamas will have no role to play in governance,” and will have to hand over its weapons to the Palestinian authorities.

“There can be no justice if Palestine is not freed,” Abbas said.

In a short but resolute speech, 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, Australia, the UK and Canada to recognise them as an independent state and called for the remaining few dozen countries to do the same.

But, he added, that 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 continues 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”.

“The dawn of freedom will emerge, and the flag of Palestine will fly high in our skies as a symbol of dignity, steadfastness and being free from the occupation,” Abbas said.

“We will not leave our homeland. We will not leave our lands.”

Meanwhile, Israel struck houses and tents in central and southern Gaza on Thursday, crushing families inside and killing at least 17 Palestinians, local health officials said.

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 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.