Palestinian leader Abbas holds United States accountable for allowing Gaza war to continue

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has called the ongoing Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip "more than a war of annihilation" and blamed the United States for its continuation.

"Our people have not seen [before] such a war even in the 1948 Nakba," Abbas said, using an Arabic term referring to Palestinians' mass displacement during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

"Those who go to Gaza cannot recognize it now," the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) told Egyptian TV in an interview aired late on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, whenever the world, the [UN] Security Council and the General Assembly try to stop this war, the US uses the veto and refuses to stop fighting," he said.

"If the US wanted, it could make a gesture to Israel and Israel would stop it. We say to the Americans what is going on is happening with your support."

According to Abbas, the Gaza Strip, an impoverished enclave of around 2.3 million people, needs tens of billions of dollars to be rebuilt. "Gaza is living a very big Nakba," he said.

The PA ruled the strip until Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 in what Abbas called a "coup."