Netanyahu signals openness to Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan: Sources

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip a genocide and called for an end to the incursion.

"I speak to you today after almost two years in which our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been facing a war of genocide, destruction, starvation and displacement waged by the Israeli occupation forces," Abbas said speaking at the United Nations General Assembly.

"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 conscious as one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries," Abbas said.

A committee has began its work to draft a constitution for the state of Palestine as a nation-state and that will be completed within three months. This will be for the state of Palestine with the 1967 borders and east Jerusalem as its capital, Abbas said.

Abbas also called for Israel to stop its plans to establish more illegal settlements and plans to annex more land in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, is prepared to take on the burden of governing the Gaza Strip, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

Abbas condemned Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, saying the attack on civilians does not represent the Palestinian people.

Abbas expressed his "gratitude and appreciation" to the states that recently recognized the state of Palestine, including France, the U.K., Canada and Belgium. Now, 157 states recognize Palestine.

The Palestinian government recognized the state of Israel in 1988 and 1993 and still recognizes Israel's right to exist, Abbas said.

He called for an immediate and permanent end to the war in Gaza, the immediate entry of aid through the United Nations organizations, the immediate release of all hostages, the complete withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip and the ending of plans for new illegal settlements.

Israeli forces killed 83 Palestinians and injured 216 others across the war-torn Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Thursday afternoon.

Among those killed were seven people trying to collect humanitarian aid, while another 50 were wounded, according to the ministry.

A total of 65,427 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, the health ministry said.

-ABC News' Diaa Ostaz and Morgan Winsor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he said he would "condemn" leaders of nations who have recently recognized Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu is set to speak at the UNGA on Friday. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority -- the government exercising limited control over parts of the occupied West Bank, in cooperation with Israeli authorities -- will speak on Thursday.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the airport, waving Israeli flags and yellow banners, the latter representing the symbol adopted by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to demand the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

"I will condemn those leaders who, instead of condemning the murderers, the rapists, the child burners, want to give them a state in the heart of the land of Israel," Netanyahu said. "This will not happen."

This week, several nations including Canada, France and the U.K. officially recognized Palestinian statehood, with leaders framing the move as a response to Israel's war in Gaza and Netanyahu's self-professed efforts to block any two-state solution to the decades-long conflict.

The Palestinian Authority foresees a future Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem, its borders aligned with the so-called “Green Line” recognized by the UN before the Six-Day War of 1967.

A Palestinian state is now recognized by 157 of the 193 UN member states, including 18 of 32 NATO allies.

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti