Palestine's Abbas urges more action to end Gaza war at UN Nakba event

World body passed historic resolution in 2022 to recognise mass displacement of Palestinians in 1940s

The UN General Assembly during a meeting in December 2024. EPA

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged intensified international action to halt the war in Gaza at a UN event on Thursday marking the anniversary of the Nakba − or catastrophe.

The UN event, held for the second time, commemorates the event when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes during the war surrounding the establishment of Israel in 1948.

“History is indelible and justice is not time-bound,” Mr Abbas said in a speech delivered by Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour at the UN headquarters in New York.

“Today we stand before you, not only to commemorate the sombre anniversary, but to renew the pledge that the Nakba was not and will not be the permanent and inevitable fate of our people.”

Roy Cooper / The National

Mr Abbas accused Israeli forces of committing “crimes of genocide, destruction and starvation” in Gaza over the past 19 months, aiming to displace Palestinians from the enclave.

“The number of Palestinian refugees inside Palestine, the neighbouring countries and across the world has reached more than seven million, and their suffering continues,” he said.

More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza amid an aid blockade that risks famine, while Israeli leaders reiterate calls to empty the enclave of Palestinians, as the war, triggered by Hamas’s 2023 attacks on southern Israel, continues.

Noura Erekat, a Palestinian-American legal scholar and human rights lawyer, argued that the failure to impose sanctions, pursue boycotts or hold Israel accountable has effectively legitimised occupation and apartheid.

“By relegating Palestine to a bilateral issue beyond the reach of international law, you have steadily normalised occupation,” she said.

Palestinian villagers flee during fighting between Israeli and Arab troops on November 4, 1948. AP

She warned that continued inaction risks enabling further atrocities. “Many of you have normalised apartheid … now, by failing to act, you are at risk of normalising genocide.”

The UN General Assembly will convene a conference in June to advance a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia.

“Peace demands tangible, irreversible, and permanent progress toward a two-state solution an end to the occupation and the creation of an independent Palestinian state, with Gaza as an integral part,” said Khaled Khiari, UN assistant secretary general for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.

The UN passed a historic resolution in 2022, despite Israel's vehement opposition, to recognise the Nakba.

The day brings painful memories of displacement and widely documented reports of torture and mass killings by Israeli forces against Palestinians in 1948.