ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily yesterday after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threw down the gauntlet over the Israel’s continuing occupation.

In his address to the UN general assembly on Wednesday, Mr Abbas said the Oslo peace agreement was dead and that Israel “must assume fully all its responsibilities as an occupying force.”

He said Israel’s refusal to commit to the agreements signed “render us an authority without real powers.”

The Palestinian leader recalled the high hopes for a two-state solution at last year’s UN leaders’ summit, which were dashed just weeks later when talks broke down.

He called on all nations to support Palestine’s struggle for freedom from occupation.

“The support of the countries of the world for our endeavour is a victory for truth, freedom, justice, law and international legitimacy, and it provides tremendous support for the peace option and enhances the chances of success of the negotiations,” he said.

The Israeli prime minister sought to retaliate in his own speech to the UN general assembly yesterday.

Ahead of his arrival, Mr Netanyahu branded Mr Abbas’s address “deceitful,” claiming that it “encourages incitement and destruction in the Middle East.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Abbas had raised the Palestinian flag outside the UN headquarters for the first time with a vow that it would soon be raised in Jerusalem, “the capital of our Palestinian state.”

More than 300 ministers, diplomats and well-wishers crowded into the UN rose garden for the ceremony, although US officials were conspicuous by their absence.