Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Abbas urged for immediate action, saying that the creation of worldwide protections for Palestinians is now more pressing than ever.
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Abbas accused Israel of carrying out “extrajudicial killings against unarmed civilians”, but did not mention that many Palestinians killed in the past month were shot while carrying out stabbing attacks, according to the Times of Israel.
Abbas also took the occasion to slam Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments suggesting that Palestinian religious leader Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini convinced Adolf Hitler to exterminate Europe’s Jews.
The Israeli military said that soldiers had approached two Palestinians they found acting suspiciously at a junction near a Jewish settlement.
Abbas’s speech, which reiterated numerous points and language used last month when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, comes after a bloody day of violence on Tuesday in which three Palestinians were shot dead and at least one Israeli injured. Eighteen Palestinians have reportedly been killed after committing terrorist attacks, and around 30 others have been killed during clashes with Israeli security forces.
Abbas called for “peaceful popular resistance”, lashed out at Israel’s “oppressive war machine” and said “the criminal acts of settlers must be stopped”.
Palestinian protesters are calling for unrestricted access to worship at Al-Aqsa, a site also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Many Palestinians explain their fear of encroaching Israeli influence at Al-Aqsa by comparing it to the restructuring of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron, where Jewish and Muslim worshipers are both allowed to visit, albeit separately.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians demonstrated Tuesday night in Hebron to demand the return of “the bodies of martyrs” – youths behind the wave of unrest that has seen nine Israelis killed in knife attacks and shootings.
“Isn’t it high time for the worldwide community to move from merely talking about the justice of the Palestinian cause to taking practical measures and procedures that would serve justice to my Palestinian people?” he said.
Meanwhile, 330 other Palestinians sustained suffocation due to teargas inhalation during clashes with Israeli forces at Gaza’s eastern border.
Amnesty global on Tuesday accused Israel of a series of “unlawful killings of Palestinians using intentional lethal force without justification” in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they seek to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Meantime, Palestinian factions across al-Khalil have called for the “rally of anger” in solidarity with the families of those killed by Israeli forces on allegations of attacking Israelis.
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“The Temple Mount has been quiet for two weeks”.
