PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD Abbas has called on nations at the UN General Assembly to stop sending weapons to Israel in order to halt its attacks in the West Bank and Gaza, singling out the United States in particular.

Abbas said that Washington has continued to provide diplomatic cover and weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza despite the mounting death toll there, now at 41,534 according to the territory’s health ministry.

That official toll does not account for the thousands of dead likely buried under the rubble of the buildings destroyed in Israel’s bombardment. 

“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank,” Abbas said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

Abbas is the leader of the Palestinian Authority, which excercises limited governing power under the Israeli occupation in the West Bank in Palestine, which is territorially separate from the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is the dominant party. 

The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced multiple times by the war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel. Over the same period, Israeli soldiers and settlers have dramatically ramped up violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, killing more than 600 people and displacing thousands. 

“The US alone stood and said: ‘No, the fighting is going to continue.’ It did this by using the veto,” he said, referring to the veto repeatedly wielded to thwart censure of Israel at the UN Security Council. 

Reforming the veto powers of the permanent members of the Security Council was a major theme in yesterday’s meeting of the council, with many emissaries arguing it is an obstacle to peace. 

“It furnished Israel with the deadly weapons that it used to kill thousands of innocent civilians, children and women,” Abbas said of the US. 

“This further encouraged Israel to continuous aggression,” he added, saying that Israel “does not deserve” to be in the UN.

The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest backer, supplying the nation with billions of dollars of aid and weaponry, while also providing diplomatic cover at bodies like the Security Council and international courts.

President Joe Biden has said his country’s support for Israel is “ironclad”.

Critics of the Biden administration have been asking throughout the conflict how the US can be a broker in ceasefire talks while it simultaneously arms one of the parties to the conflict. 

The US has also repeatedly expressed “concern” over reports of crimes committed by Israel since October last year, including allegations of indiscriminate bombing, using starvation as a weapon of war, using civilians as human shields and the torture and rape of detainees in Israeli prison camps.

Israel has also been accused of genocide in a case brought to the International Court of Justice by South Africa. The lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has separately requested warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity. 

A number of US citizens have also been killed by Israeli forces since the war began.

Despite these concerns, effective support for Israel from the US has been unwavering, apart from the halting of one shipment of arms in May. 

In mid-August, the US approved a $20 billion arms sale package to Israel, less than a week after it released $3.5 billion in funds for the purchase of weapons. 

This afternoon, Israel said it had secured another $8.7 billion in US aid.

Other countries close to Israel, including the UK and Germany, have scaled back their military support recently after coming under pressure domestically.

“The package includes $3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement … and $5.2 billion designated for air defence systems, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and an advanced laser system,” the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this week, when Biden gave his speech to the General Assembly in New York, he urged nations to “stop arming the generals” in the civil war in Sudan. 

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