Closing summary
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has decried Israel’s “war of genocide” and settlement expansion, while condemning Hamas and saying the armed group would hand over its weapons in any postwar settlement in a closely watched speech to the United Nations. Abbas addressed the gathering by video conference after his visa was revoked by the United States ahead of the 80th session of the United Nations general assembly.
Reinforcing the global schism over Israel’s war in Gaza, UN member states voted 145-5 vote to allow Abbas to address the United Nations remotely after the US barred more than 80 Palestinians from entering the country. “What Israel is carrying out is not merely an aggression. It is a war crime and a crime against humanity that is both documented and monitored, and it will be recorded in history books and the pages of international conscience as one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Abbas said on Thursday.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council in Yemen, also addressed the UN. He said the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal. “It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.
The Israeli military said it struck military targets linked to Yemen’s Houthis in Sana’a on Thursday, a day after the group claimed a drone attack on a hotel in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat. The Houthi general staff’s control headquarters, security and intelligence compounds, and military camps where among the targets attacked by the Israeli air force, the military said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Israel has struck houses and tents in central and southern Gaza, crushing families inside and killing at least 17 Palestinians, including 10 children and three women, local health officials said, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to grow.
Iranian vice-president Mohammad Eslami said on Thursday that Tehran would continue to pursue its nuclear programme, which he said was open to international scrutiny. “Iran’s path and the Iranian programme are completely transparent, and we will not deviate from it. You know that the most stringent inspections are conducted in Iran,” Eslami, who is also Iran’s nuclear chief, said via a translator.
Israel will reopen the only crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan to passenger traffic only, starting Friday morning, the Israeli Airports Authority said on Thursday. Israel shut Allenby Crossing last Friday after a driver bringing humanitarian aid from Jordan for Gaza opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers there. After briefly reopening it on Monday, Israel closed it indefinitely on Tuesday.
Microsoft has terminated the Israeli military’s access to technology it used to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected millions of Palestinian civilian phone calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank, the Guardian can reveal. Microsoft told Israeli officials late last week that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had violated the company’s terms of service by storing the vast trove of surveillance data in its Azure cloud platform, sources familiar with the situation said.
Slovenia on Thursday said it was banning Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from entering the European Union country to underscore its defense of international law. The decision was linked to an arrest warrant issued by the international criminal court against the Israeli prime minister, foreign ministry official Neva Grasic said, according to the official STA news agency.
The Spanish navy vessel set to escort the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza poses no threat to anyone, including Israel, Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares told Reuters on Thursday. In an interview, Albares added that Spain had accepted Belgium’s request to assist Belgian citizens onboard the flotilla if needed and was holding conversations with Ireland on the same subject.
President Donald Trump will host Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, for talks Thursday at the White House in the latest sign of warming relations between the United States and the South Asian nuclear power. Sharif was among top officials from eight Arab or Muslim countries who met with Trump on the sidelines of the UN general assembly this week to discuss strategy on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, AP reported.
The BBC and a handful of news agencies have launched a short film calling on Israel to let foreign journalists into Gaza.
The film – created in association with Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters – comes amid increasing international pressure for a ceasefire.
Foreign media have been banned from entering Gaza since October 2023, other than for brief, tightly controlled trips escorted by the Israeli military.
The two-minute long clip from the BBC, narrated by veteran journalist David Dimbleby, shows historical photos from different wars, including the harrowing image of the Napalm Girl, which dramatically changed public attitude towards the Vietnam war when it was splashed across newspapers in 1972.
The Spanish navy vessel set to escort the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza poses no threat to anyone, including Israel, Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares told Reuters on Thursday.
In an interview, Albares added that Spain had accepted Belgium’s request to assist Belgian citizens onboard the flotilla if needed and was holding conversations with Ireland on the same subject.
President Donald Trump will host Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, for talks Thursday at the White House in the latest sign of warming relations between the United States and the South Asian nuclear power.
Sharif was among top officials from eight Arab or Muslim countries who met with Trump on the sidelines of the UN general assembly this week to discuss strategy on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, AP reported.
Ties have improved between the US and Pakistan as Trump’s relationship with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, one of the Republican president’s closest with a world leader during his first term, has become strained over India’s increased purchases of discounted Russian oil after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. India and Pakistan are neighbours and fierce rivals.
Israel has struck houses and tents in central and southern Gaza, crushing families inside and killing at least 17 Palestinians, including 10 children and three women, local health officials said, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to grow.
Israel will reopen the only crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan to passenger traffic only, starting Friday morning, the Israeli Airports Authority said on Thursday.
Israel shut Allenby Crossing last Friday after a driver bringing humanitarian aid from Jordan for Gaza opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers there. After briefly reopening it on Monday, Israel closed it indefinitely on Tuesday.
The gateway, also known as the Karama Crossing, serves as the main thoroughfare for West Bank Palestinians to travel abroad and is used by trucks carrying commercial goods between Jordan and the West Bank.
The decision to partially reopen it was made in accordance with the “directive of the political echelon,” the authority said.
Iranian vice-president Mohammad Eslami said on Thursday that Tehran would continue to pursue its nuclear programme, which he said was open to international scrutiny.
“Iran’s path and the Iranian programme are completely transparent, and we will not deviate from it. You know that the most stringent inspections are conducted in Iran,” Eslami, who is also Iran’s nuclear chief, said via a translator.
He was addressing a nuclear forum in Moscow.
Russia has close ties with Iran and supports its right to peaceful nuclear energy. Moscow condemned attacks on Iranian nuclear sites by Israel and the US earlier this year.
Abbas decries Israel’s ‘genocide’ and says Hamas will have no role in future Gaza government
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has decried Israel’s “war of genocide” and settlement expansion, while condemning Hamas and saying the armed group would hand over its weapons in any postwar settlement in a closely watched speech to the United Nations.
Abbas addressed the gathering by video conference after his visa was revoked by the United States ahead of the 80th session of the United Nations general assembly.
Reinforcing the global schism over Israel’s war in Gaza, UN member states voted 145-5 vote to allow Abbas to address the United Nations remotely after the US barred more than 80 Palestinians from entering the country.
“What Israel is carrying out is not merely an aggression. It is a war crime and a crime against humanity that is both documented and monitored, and it will be recorded in history books and the pages of international conscience as one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Abbas said on Thursday.
Abbas reiterated a number of declarations he made at a special session led by France and Saudi Arabia on Monday, where France and several other countries formally recognised Palestinian statehood. In the speech, he called for an immediate ceasefire, unimpeded entry for humanitarian aid through UN organisations, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the withdrawal of Israel from territory in Gaza.
He also issued a rejection of the PA’s rival Hamas, which he said would have no role in a postwar governance of Gaza – a key condition of Israel and the United States’. However Abbas and the Palestinian Authority administer the West Bank but not Gaza, and do not have a direct role in negotiations over a ceasefire or postwar planning for Gaza.
Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians
Microsoft has terminated the Israeli military’s access to technology it used to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected millions of Palestinian civilian phone calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank, the Guardian can reveal.
Microsoft told Israeli officials late last week that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had violated the company’s terms of service by storing the vast trove of surveillance data in its Azure cloud platform, sources familiar with the situation said.
The decision to cut off Unit 8200’s ability to use some of its technology results directly from an investigation published by the Guardian last month. It revealed how Azure was being used to store and process the trove of Palestinian communications in a mass surveillance programme.
In a joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, the Guardian revealed how Microsoft and Unit 8200 had worked together on a plan to move large volumes of sensitive intelligence material into Azure.
The project began after a meeting in 2021 between Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and the unit’s then commander, Yossi Sariel.
In response to the investigation, Microsoft ordered an urgent external inquiry to review its relationship with Unit 8200. Its initial findings have now led the company to cancel the unit’s access to some of its cloud storage and AI services.
Slovenia on Thursday said it was banning Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from entering the European Union country to underscore its defense of international law.
The decision was linked to an arrest warrant issued by the international criminal court against the Israeli prime minister, foreign ministry official Neva Grasic said, according to the official STA news agency.
The EU nation of 2 million people, which recognised a Palestinian state last year, has been a vocal critic of Israeli actions in Gaza and Thursday’s move against Netanyahu was apparently designed to underscore the country’s policies.
Slovenia already had barred Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country and imposed an arms embargo on Israel.
Yemeni residents told Reuters that the strikes were directed at areas in the south and west of Sana’a.
The strikes took place while a pre-recorded speech by Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi was airing.
At least 20 people were injured on Wednesday after a drone launched from Yemen hit a hotel in Israel’s Red Sea resort city of Eilat, the Israeli ambulance service said.
Israel strikes Yemen's Sana'a a day after Eilat drone attack
The Israeli military said it struck military targets linked to Yemen’s Houthis in Sana’a on Thursday, a day after the group claimed a drone attack on a hotel in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat.
The Houthi general staff’s control headquarters, security and intelligence compounds, and military camps where among the targets attacked by the Israeli air force, the military said in a statement, Reuters reported.
“We have now delivered a powerful strike on numerous terror targets of the Houthi terror organization in Sanaa”, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said in a post on X.
The strikes are the latest in more than a year of attacks and counterstrikes between Houthi militants in Yemen and Israel, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.
Just to return to the previous speech from Mahmoud Abbas, it is worth noting that the Palestinian president said he was ready to work with US president Donald Trump.
Abbas also said he would work with Saudi Arabia, France and the United Nations to implement a Gaza peace plan adopted at a 22 September conference, which he said could pave the way for a just peace and broader regional cooperation.
Yemen must not be left to fall prey of blackmail and terrorism, Alimi says, adding that he is asking for “international action” and “not more statements”.
And, with that, his speech has concluded.
Peace in Yemen 'must be imposed by force', says leader of PLC
Alimi says the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal.
“It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.
Alimi says the Houthis are responsible for supporting “cross-border terrorism” and threatening peace nationally and internationally.
“I call on you today to form an effective international coalition to … liberate the country [of Yemen],” he says.
Updated
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council in Yemen, is now addressing the floor.
He starts by saying that he wants to congratulate the Yemeni people who are tonight celebrating the birth of the republic 63 years ago.
He says the Iranian regime uses starvation as a weapon and religion as a tool, referring to Iran’s support of the Houthis.
“Peace cannot be achieved if justice cannot be achieved,” says Abbas, adding that “there can be no justice if Palestine is not freed.”
He says the time has come for the international community to “do right by” the Palestinian people.
He says the peaceful, legal and diplomatic fight for the rights of Palestine will continue.
“No matter how long the suffering lasts, it will not break our will to live and survive,” he says. “The dawn of freedom will emerge and the flag of Palestine will fly high in our skies.”
Abbas concludes his 20-minute speech by saying that “our people will remain rooted like the olive trees, firm as the rocks”.
The speech is over and there is widespread applause from the floor.
The Palestinian president is now thanking the nations that have recognised the state of Palestine, as well as protesters around the world who have campaigned to stop the war.
Abbas says it is not right to confuse solidarity with the Palestinian cause with antisemitism.
He says there is the need for an immediate end of the war, the entry of humanitarian aid through UN organisations and to stop using starvation as a weapon.
He calls for an end to “the terrorism of settlers” and “theft of Palestinain land and property under the headline of annexation”.
The residents of the Gaza Strip should remain on their land and it should be reconstructed, as well as the West Bank, he adds.
Abbas is now talking about how Palestine signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 and recognised the state of Israel.
“We made all our efforts to build the institutions of a modern Palestinian state that lives side-by-side in peace and security with Israel,” he says, adding that Israel has not adhered to the agreements and has “worked to undermine them”.
Abbas says he wishes to express his gratitude to those countries that have recognised or plan to recognise the state of Palestine.
“It should be noted we have already recognised Israel’s right to exist in 1988 and 1993 and we still recognise this right,” he says.
Hamas will play no rule in Palestinian governance and must disarm, says Abbas
Abbas says religious sites have not been spared from Israeli attacks, with mosques and churches being destroyed in contravention with international law.
He says he condemns the actions of Hamas on 7 October 2023. He says the group’s actions “do not represent the Palestinian people”.
He reinforces that the Gaza Strip is an “integral” part of the state of Palestine and says Hamas will play no role in future governance. They will have to hand over their weapons, he says.
“We reiterate that we do not want an armed state,” Abbas tells the floor via video link.
Updated
Israel carrying out crime against humanity in Gaza, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas tells UN
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is now addressing the floor via video link.
He says that Israel have “imposed a stifling siege on an entire people” and says that it is “not merely an aggression; it is a war crime and a crime against humanity”.
Abbas says, the West Bank, Israel continues to illegally expand its settlements. He says Palestine rejects and “completely deplores” plans for a “Greater Israel”.
Updated
Israeli forces struck the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday, the South-run Al Masirah TV said.
The broadcaster did not immediately give any further details on the attack, Reuters reported.
Yemen needs its own two-state solution, the president of its Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said, warning that there is currently no prospect of dislodging the Iran-backed Houthis from power in the north.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian: “The best solution for Yemen and the best path to stability is the two-state solution, whether by referendum or agreement. The reality on the ground is that there are two states militarily and economically.”
Between 1967 and 1990 the Arab world’s poorest nation was divided in two, with the Yemen Arab Republic in the north and the communist People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in the south. The two states reunited in 1990 but in 2014 Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sana’a, unleashing a catastrophic civil war that displaced more than 4.5 million people before a 2022 ceasefire.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign to prevent the rebels from overrunning the country’s south, while the Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack Saudi Arabia and have targeted vessels in the Red Sea. This year hundreds of civilians were killed in a two-month US bombing campaign against the Houthis.
Yemen remains divided between north and south but is still treated as a unitary state by the international community. Zubaidi said there was no prospect of removing the Houthis through bombing alone and little hope of a political settlement.
Opening summary: Abbas to address UN via video link shortly
The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas will address the United Nations general assembly shortly as the US weighs whether to try to stop Israeli annexation of the West Bank, despite opposing him.
The speech by the veteran 89-year-old comes as a slew of western nations recognise the state of Palestine.
Donald Trump’s administration adamantly rejected statehood and, in a highly unusual step, barred Abbas and his senior aides from traveling to New York for the gathering of world leaders.
The general assembly overwhelmingly voted to let Abbas address the world body with a video message. We will be covering his speech here.
Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank in a bid to kill any prospect of true independence. The Israeli PM will address the general assembly tomorrow.
In other developments:
Yemen’s President of the Presidential Leadership Council, Mohammed Al-Alimi, will address the general assembly after Abbas. The Saudi-backed PLC hold power in the south of the country but the Iran-backed Houthis control much of Yemen and are now locked in conflict with Israel.
Activists in a flotilla seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza said Wednesday that some of their boats were attacked by drones. The Global Sumud Flotilla said that “at least 13 explosions” were heard, while drones or aircraft dropped “unidentified objects” on at least 10 boats. No casualties were reported but there was damage to the vessels.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is meeting Donald Trump at the White House. The Turkish president has been one of the world’s most vocal critics of Israel for its operations in Gaza. Colleagues on our US blog will be covering their talks.
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