UNITED NATIONS — Speaking over video after the United States revoked his visa, the Palestinian leader told world leaders Thursday that his people reject the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and pledged that the militant group would have no role in governing the Gaza Strip after war ends and must hand over its weapons to his administration. “The dawn of freedom will emerge,” Mahmoud Abbas said.
Abbas told the U.N. 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.
In a short but resolute speech, Abbas lay out his continued vision for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Is