Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pleaded via videoconference on Thursday, September 25, the cause of the Palestinian people, who he said were victims of Israeli "crimes." He affirmed that if a future Palestinian state were created, Hamas would have "no role" to play in governance.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a vibrant video address to the UN on Thursday, September 25, for the Palestinian people who are victims of Israeli "crimes," unequivocally assuring that Hamas would have no role in the future governance of a possible State of Palestine.

While Israel and the United States believe that the new wave of recognition of a Palestinian state is a reward for Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas has assured that the Palestinian movement responsible for the October 7 attacks "will have no role to play in governance."

A call for international recognition of the Palestinian state

"Hamas and other factions must surrender their weapons to the Palestinian Authority," insisted the leader, who was forced to speak via video at the UN General Assembly in New York after his visa was refused by the United States.

"We reject what Hamas did on October 7," he continued, "which does not represent the Palestinian people or their just struggle for freedom and independence."

He also rejected "the confusion between solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the issue of anti-Semitism" opposed to "our values and principles."

Repeating the pledges made a few months ago to convince France in particular to take the step of recognition, Mahmoud Abbas called on "all countries that have not yet done so to recognize the Palestinian state."

At a summit held Monday by France and Saudi Arabia on the future of the two-state solution, with Palestinians and Israelis living side by side in peace and security, a dozen countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, formally recognized the State of Palestine.

The vast majority of UN member states are on this line (at least 151 out of 193, according to AFP checks).

Mahmoud Abbas also did not mince his words against Israel, calling on the international community to "support our efforts to stop the genocide and the occupation."

After nearly two years of war in the ravaged Gaza Strip, "what Israel is conducting is not a simple aggression, it is a war crime and a crime against humanity (...) which will be recorded in the pages of history books and in the conscience of humanity as one of the most horrific chapters of the humanitarian tragedy of the 20th and 21st centuries," he said.

Benjamin Netanyahu says there will be no Palestinian state

While historic in its momentum, the movement to recognize a Palestinian state is merely symbolic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will address the General Assembly on Friday, called these recognitions a "shameful submission to Palestinian terrorism" that "does not oblige Israel in any way."

"There will be no Palestinian state," he declared.

On Friday, "I will denounce those leaders who, instead of condemning murderers, rapists, and child burners, want to grant them a state in the heart of the Land of Israel," the Prime Minister added at Ben Gurion Airport before his departure for New York, according to a statement from his office.

The head of the Israeli government has himself been the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court since November 2024 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, US envoy Steve Witkoff announced a new "21-point plan for peace in the Middle East and Gaza," presented the day before by Donald Trump to several Arab and Muslim countries during a meeting.

"We are hopeful, and I would even say confident, that in the coming days we will be able to announce some kind of breakthrough," he assured.

A new peace plan supported by Trump and his allies

Donald Trump wants to "quickly end" the conflict, a White House official told AFP, adding that the countries present at the meeting "expressed their hope to work" with Steve Witkoff to study the project.

After nearly two years of war against Hamas, the Israeli army launched a major air and ground offensive on September 16 on Gaza City, the largest urban center in the territory, in order to eliminate what it presents as the last major bastion of the Islamist movement Hamas.