Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are expected to address the United Nations this week during the high-level portion of its 79th opening session.
Netanyahu was slated to leave late Wednesday night and arrive in New York already on Thursday. Foreign Minister Israel Katz will be the acting Prime Minister in his absence.
Netanyahu is slated to address the UNGA on Friday morning EST, where he is expected to defend Israel’s right to secure itself from attacks by Iranian proxy groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Abbas will speak before the plenum on Thursday, a plenum where speakers have already expressed their strong support for unilateral Palestinian statehood and an end to the Israel-Hamas War.
Heads of state and top diplomats who are in New York this week for the UNGA opening session have been holding sidebar talks to seek a resolution to Israel’s war with Hamas along its southern border, and with Hezbollah in Lebanon on its northern border.
EU to hold meeting on situation in Gaza
On Thursday, the European Union is slated to hold a “ministerial meeting on the situation in Gaza and the implementation of the Two-State Solution as the path to just and comprehensive peace” in New York.
Foreign Ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Norway, along with the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OiC) will attend as well. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki is also expected to participate. Israel was invited but is not expected to attend.
The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which oversees donor projects for the Palestinians, is also expected to hold a high-level meeting on Thursday.
The United Nations Security Council, which was expected to meet on the Israel-Lebanon crisis on Wednesday, will also convene on Friday to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is possible that Abbas would attend the meeting and address the council.