Riyad Mansour, the UN Palestinian ambassador, told the UN General Assembly his people are “being slaughtered,” with entire families killed and stressed “the horrors need to end and the only way to end them is a ceasefire”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The whole world is calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” he said, accusing Israel of “destroying everything to make Gaza unlivable”.

But he added: “The Palestinian people are here to stay.”

Israel’s far-right cabinet ministers have repeatedly called for the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza.

Mansour said: “This assault is without precedent in modern history – in the scale and pace in the killing of children, of UN personnel, of medical and rescue teams, of journalists.”