Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasFlash 90

The Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called for an immediate stop to the "Israeli aggression" and to work urgently to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In an address for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Abbas urged the international community to work to prevent the forced emigration of Palestinian Arabs, to supply international protection for the Palestinian people, to achieve justice by bringing Israel to justice, to oppose the partition of Gaza, the reduction of its territory, or the return of Israeli military presence.

Abbas sided with taking strategic steps to deal with the strategic threats against the Two-State Solution and to find a solution for the root of the problem and the reason for the lack of security and the instability in the Middle East by ending the Israeli "colonial occupation" of the land of Palestine and its capital Jerusalem, by exercising the Palestinians' rights, including the return of the Palestinian refugees to the homes from which they were expelled.

The Chairman also emphasized that Israel does not have a right to claim self-defense. "The operation is a crime. The aggression and the occupation of other's land can not claim self-defense."

According to him, there will not be a Palestinian state in Gaza or a Palestinian state without Gaza since Gaza is no different than Jerusalem and the "West Bank" as it is an essential and integral part of the Palestinian state.

"The time has come to hold an international peace conference," Abbas said, "which will support forcing the international will and oppose the Israeli insistence not to recognize the Palestinian people's right to self-determination."