Palestine's top diplomat in Manila has lamented some of the world leaders' support for Israel's right to self-defense, which he said consequently "authorized" the acts of "genocide" against the Palestinian people.

For Palestinian Ambassador Saleh Mohammad, what Israel is doing is no longer its defense against Hamas, a militant group currently serving as the de-facto government of the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Rather, it has an agenda of "ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people," "displacement," and "mass deportations" of the people there.

"World leaders have condemned Hamas. World leaders have shown sympathy and solidarity with Israel, and declare that they understand and they support the right of Israel to defend themselves," Mohammad told reporters in a press conference Friday night.

"What you see now in Gaza, is this a [self] defense? The scenes of these people getting killed... [the] innocent people, this is what the world leaders authorized Israel to do," he added.

Israel recently said it has no interest in harming and targetting the civilians.

He said no world leader who has "ethics" and "love his own people" would have authorized other country to "massacre" civilians, like the one happening now in Gaza.

"Right of defense is not like committing genocide," Mohammad said.

The envoy said Israel's attack on Gaza continues, with a church as among its new target. Israel's war machines are "still bombing everywhere" and are "not excluding any target."

"Palestinian life matters. Our life is not lesser than Israelis'," he said as the death toll in Gaza is now more than double of Israel's.

"This is not a war. This is genocide," he added.

Following Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise assault on Israel that led to the latter's retaliation, the Philippines expressed its support to Israel's right to self-defense. But it also expressed condemnation of the killings of the civilians and joined other ASEAN members in denouncing the acts of violence.

"The position of the Philippines on certain issues usually comes from the interest of the government. We don't interfere, but we also dream and expect also [of] better understanding for our just cause," the envoy said.

Mohammad said the Palestinian Authority neither supports nor condemns Hamas' attack because doing so would only be "wrongly read" and "double-edged."

While the Palestinian Authority is condemning the killing of innocent people, Mohamma said, what's important now is to address the "cycle of violence," which world leaders must concentrate on.

"This will need a joint, collective regional cooperation to put an end to this mad war, you know unjustified war," he said.

"There's no way out to settle this problem without the birth of a viable independent State of Palestine on the land [that] was taken in the 1967 war," he added.