Palestinian president announces Gaza visit as Israeli offensive claims Over 40,000 lives

Abbas makes unprecedented announcement in address to Turkish parliament's extraordinary session on Palestine

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ISTANBUL:

In an unprecedented move amid the deadly war, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Thursday that he plans to visit the Gaza Strip even as the Israeli offensive that to date has killed more than 40,000 people rages on.

“I announce before you and the world that I have decided to go to the Gaza Strip with all Palestinian leaders,” Abbas told the Turkish parliament in Ankara during an extraordinary session on Palestine, attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hundreds of Turkish lawmakers and other top officials. Abbas is normally based in the West Bank.

Abbas called on the leaders of Arab, Islamic, and friendly countries as well as the UN secretary-general to join his planned visit to help “stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza.”

He also urged the UN Security Council to ensure their access to the besieged enclave.

“Our next destination will be the holy city of Jerusalem, our eternal capital,” he stressed.

Abbas hailed the position of Turkiye, President Erdogan, and the Turkish people in rejecting and condemning the Israeli “crimes” against the Palestinians.

“Despite Israel's starvation, killing, destruction, and targeting of humanitarian groups, the US used its veto power three times in the UN Security Council to prevent a halt of the war,” he said.

The Palestinian president emphasised that the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and West Bank are one geographical unit that forms an independent Palestinian state according to international legitimacy.

He called for standing with the Palestinians “to free more than 10,000 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.”

Abbas stressed that the Palestinian people will “rebuild Gaza and heal our wounds with the support of Arab and Islamic nations, under our independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

“There can be no Palestinian state without Gaza,” Abbas said. “To those who speak of post-war Gaza scenarios, we say, Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem are one united entity that forms the Palestinian state.”

Israel has continued its brutal military offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed more than 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,400 others, according to local health authorities.

Over 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.