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Palestinian President Abbas to address UNGA via video
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the annual gathering of world leaders next week via video after the United States said it would not give him a visa to travel to New York.
The resolution received 145 votes in favour and five votes against, while six countries abstained.
Washington said last month it would not allow Abbas and other Palestinian officials to travel to New York, where several US allies are set to recognise Palestine as a state.
The General Assembly speeches are scheduled to begin on Tuesday after leaders gather on Monday for a summit – hosted by France and Saudi Arabia – that aims to build momentum towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
‘Gaza is burning and the world is watching’
Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, says Israel’s policy of starvation is continuing “with children dying first” as well as pregnant women and the elderly.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, he said the situation is “very tragic” especially after Israeli forces stepped up assaults on the north of the enclave and in Gaza City, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.
“Most Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip are without food, water and electricity, and the healthcare sector is not equipped to handle the crisis,” al-Daqran said. “Gaza is burning and the world is watching.”
Al-Daqran said people in the north “prefer death to fleeing south” as there is no space or public services there.
‘Height of barbarity’: Hezbollah chief accuses Israel of grave crimes
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered new remarks a day after Israel launched a wave of attacks on the south of Lebanon.
He described Israel as a colonial outpost “backed first by Britain and now by the United States”, and accused it of reaching “the height of barbarity”, committing crimes with full US support and in disregard of international law.
Qassem said “soft war, sanctions, and the Abraham Accords” all failed to deliver the quick and decisive victory the US and Israel sought, “and so, for them, genocide became the solution”.
He added Israel’s September 9 strike on Qatar marked a turning point, saying: “What comes after the strike on Qatar is different from what came before.”
