Mahmoud Abbas plans to visit Gaza, Jerusalem

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to visit the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem to highlight his government’s connection to those areas, which he believes should be within the final borders of a Palestinian state.

“I have decided to head with the Palestinian Authority members to the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said Thursday during a speech to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, where he was greeted with resounding applause.

“I will exert every effort so we can all be with our people to stop this barbaric aggression even if it costs us our lives,” Abbas said, adding that he would also go to Jerusalem. He did not specify when he would visit.

“Gaza is an integral part of the unified Palestinian state,” he said. “There will be no state in Gaza alone. The Palestinian people will not be broken and will never surrender.

“We will rebuild Gaza and heal the wounds of our people with the support of the Arab and Islamic nations and global allies, within the framework of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Abbas said.

Turkey's Invitation to Abbas

Turkey’s invitation to Abbas came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the US Congress in July.After Abbas’s speech, Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said: “On July 24, a war criminal gave a speech that was full of lies in the US Congress. Here today, Mahmoud Abbas stated the truth and the Palestinian cause in every sentence.”

Abbas spoke as the United States held a summit in Doha, Qatar, with Qatari and Egyptian officials aimed at finalizing a hostage deal through indirect talks with Hamas and Israel.

Hamas has forcibly ruled Gaza since it ousted Abbas’s Fatah faction from the enclave in a bloody coup in 2007. Visits by Abbas to Gaza have been rare and at present would be impossible, given that the IDF controls its borders.

Israel has insisted that the PA cannot return to Gaza once the IDF removes Hamas from power there, so it is unlikely to grant permission for Abbas to conduct a visit that would be seen as a symbolic statement of his government’s connection to the enclave.

Similarly, the PA maintains that all parts of Jerusalem over the pre-1967 lines are part of the final borders of its presumptive state. But Israel maintains that a united Jerusalem will remain part of its borders and is unlikely to grant his permission to make that visit as well.

In his speech, Abbas spoke of the importance of reuniting Fatah and Hamas.

“We would like to give the following message to everyone,” he was quoted as saying by Sky News. “We are together. We are going to act together. Our lives, my life is no more valuable than the life of a child in Palestine.”

Abbas called on the international community to object to the Gaza war by unilaterally recognizing Palestinian statehood.

“We are working to get more recognition for the state of Palestine to get more countries to recognize the state of Palestine,” he said, praising those who have done so since the start of the war on October 7, including five European countries: Norway, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Armenia.

Abbas also called on the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a member state, which needs the support of the UN Security Council. The United States has to date vetoed such efforts.

“The US unfortunately did everything… to prevent this from happening,” Abbas said.

Reuters contributed to this report.