Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that Hamas will have no role in governing a postwar Gaza Strip, virtually addressing the United Nations General Assembly after the Trump administration blocked visas for the Palestinian delegation.
Abbas further rejected Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel, while condemning Israel’s continued war in Gaza and policies in the West Bank as a “war of genocide, destruction, starvation, and displacement.”
“Despite all what our people have suffered, we reject what Hamas carried out on the 7th of October, these actions that targeted Israeli civilians, and took them hostage” the Palestinian leader said in his remarks.
“Because these actions do not represent the Palestinian people, nor do they represent their just struggle for freedom and independence,” he added.
Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority that governs territory in the West Bank, affirmed that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of “the state of Palestine” and said the Palestinian Authority stands ready to assume governance and security of the region.
“Hamas will not have a role to play in governance,” he said before the General Assembly. “Hamas and the other factions will have to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian National Authority as part of a process to build the institutions of one state, one law and one legal security forces.”
The leader added, “We reiterate that we do not want an armed state.”
The majority of member states in the United Nations have recognized the state of Palestine, a largely symbolic move but serves to increase political support for a two-state solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected an independent Palestinian state.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.
President Trump has largely sided with Netanyahu in holding back an endorsement of creating a Palestinian state, and his administration rejected visa requests for the Palestinian delegation to attend the United Nations meeting.
Trump has said he wants an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, the elimination of Hamas — which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.— and the hostages kidnapped in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack to be returned.
Trump, in his speech to the United Nations, said a ceasefire deal has to get done.
