Massacre divides Palestinians
Abbas advisor threatens Hamas with “reckoning”
December 20, 2023, 4:54 a.m
After the end of the war, the USA sees the Palestinian Authority as a possible ruler in the Gaza Strip. An adviser to Palestinian President Abbas clearly distanced himself from Hamas’ terror in an interview, even if he did not clearly name his rival.
An adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the terrorists in the Gaza Strip for their role in the Gaza war in an interview. Anyone who gives Israel an excuse to “commit more crimes” will face a “harsh reckoning,” Mahmoud Habbasch told the Arabic broadcaster Al-Arabija, without explicitly naming Hamas and other extremist groups. Their massacre in Israel on October 7th was the trigger for Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip. “Nobody is above criticism and accountability,” Habbasch continued. At the same time, he emphasized that Israel bears responsibility for the bloodshed in the Palestinian coastal area.
The USA is relying on Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) for the period after the Gaza war. The USA wants the PA, which rules in the West Bank, to take back control in the Gaza Strip. Israel rejects this and accuses it of supporting terror. Hamas violently drove the autonomous authority out of the coastal strip in 2007.
Hamas going it alone risks Palestinian unity
Abbas, who is not very popular with his own people, is considered a moderate and insists on a two-state solution. He heads the Palestinian Authority and the secular Fatah faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Fatah and Hamas are the two largest Palestinian organizations – and bitter rivals. Some representatives of the Fatah party expressed understanding for Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack in Israel. There have been reconciliation talks between the two groups for several years.
The PLO is the only legal authority for the Palestinian people, Habbasch continued in an interview with Al-Arabiya. “Everyone is expected to return to the PLO and cooperate with it.” Without mentioning Hamas by name, he suggested that its solo approach to the bloodbath in Israel had endangered the unity of the Palestinians. “Who decided to risk all interests and the unity of the Palestinian people because of party and regional intentions?” he asked, but left a concrete answer open.