This Saturday evening, at the presidential headquarters in the city of Ramallah, President Mahmoud Abbas chaired a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

President Abbas said in his speech at the beginning of the meeting:

Our cause today is going through extremely delicate and difficult circumstances, as our people in the Gaza Strip are exposed to a genocidal war and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces, in full view of the entire world.

From the first moment, we made all our efforts, and made extensive contacts with many world leaders, in order to stop this aggression. We went to the Cairo summit, held dozens of meetings, and called on the UN Security Council to stop the aggression, bring in humanitarian aid, prevent displacement abroad, and stop attacks. Settlers and the occupation forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and seeking a political solution based on international legitimacy to end the occupation. Despite the issuance of a resolution by the General Assembly by an overwhelming majority, the Israeli occupation forces responded with a ground invasion and an unprecedented intensification of bombing, destruction and killing.

The number of Palestinian victims so far has reached about 7,500 Palestinians, the majority of whom are children and women, and the number of wounded has reached about 20,000, in addition to those still under the rubble.

I say to everyone who listens to me, how can we remain silent about the killing of more than 3,000 Palestinian children? How can we remain silent about the bombing of hospitals? How can we remain silent about this brutal destruction and collective punishment of civilians?

I call on the countries of the world to put pressure on Israel to stop the waterfall of Palestinian blood, and I call on our people in these moments to unite, support each other, and stand firm on our land, in the face of this criminal war waged by the war machine of the Israeli occupation forces against our people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.

We must confront deportation, displacement, and to repeat the Nakba.

In these critical moments, I say to our people that we will rebuild everything that the occupation destroyed in the Gaza Strip, and Gaza will remain an integral part of the Palestinian state alongside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and a thorn in the side of the aggressors, and Jerusalem will remain our eternal capital, with its Islamic and Christian sanctities.

We also cannot forget in these moments our righteous martyrs, our heroic prisoners and our brave wounded. I salute our people clutching embers in Palestine, in exile, in the diaspora, and in the camps, for their heroic stand alongside the free people of the world, to whom we sincerely appreciate their stand in solidarity with the national and legitimate rights of our people.

I call on the brothers and sisters, the leaders of the Arab countries, to hold an emergency Arab summit to stop this brutal aggression against our Palestinian people and our cause, to confront regional and international challenges, and to do everything that will enable our people to remain in their land, and to end the occupation of the land of our state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

The Executive Committee remains in an emergency and open meeting to follow up on developments, communications and ongoing developments.