Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday, delivering prerecorded remarks from his office in Ramallah after the United States denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas to attend the gathering for the second year in a row. “The Palestinian people face one of the most dangerous times in its history,” Abbas said, citing long-term military occupation in the West Bank and the war in Gaza. Israel, he said, “has targeted all of the basic necessities of life”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak in person early in the afternoon. Since 2005, the now-90-year-old Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority, which is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people. But his support among Palestinians has withered during years of corruption and the sometimes violent advance of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Under Abbas, Palestine has been recognised as a country by a majority of UN member states.