The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has rejected any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians from their homeland, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking at the 38th African Union Summit in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Abbas said, “Anyone who thinks they can impose a new ‘Deal of the Century’ or displace the Palestinian people from their homeland is deluded.”

He added that “calls to remove the Palestinian people from their land and forcefully displace them were merely a diversion from the war crimes, genocide, and destruction in Gaza, as well as the crimes of settlement expansion and attempts to annex the West Bank”.

“The only place where the 1.5 million refugees living in Gaza should return to is their cities and villages from which they were displaced in 1948, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 194,” he added.

Abbas also stressed that “Israeli colonial practices require urgent action from the international community and the UN Security Council to prevent the rise of extremist forces that seek to bury the two-state solution.”