Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas conveyed his condolences to Hezbollah after Israel killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday.
“President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed his condolences to Lebanon and Hezbollah in the aftermath of Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of the organization,” according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency on Saturday.
“In a statement, the President extended his heartfelt sympathies to the Lebanese government and the brotherly people of Lebanon over the civilian casualties resulting from the ongoing Israeli aggression,” the article continued.
Israeli fighter jets bombed Hezbollah’s headquarters in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing Nasrallah and other senior terrorists, including Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan.
In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Abbas called Judaism’s holiest site—the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—the “exclusive property of Muslims” and referred to Israel as a “terrorist state” that does not deserve membership in the United Nations.
Abbas, whose presidential mandate expired in 2009, told those watching that “the world is responsible” for what he asserted were crimes against humanity taking place in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s war against Hamas.
He claimed that Israel “took advantage of what happened” on Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a massive assault on the northwestern Negev—murdering, raping and torturing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage—to “launch a genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
Abbas also said Israel has just launched a second “war of genocide” in Lebanon.
He referred to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as a terrorist for calling for a Third Temple to be built on the Mount.
Palestinian Authority officials are poised to meet with Hamas terrorists in Egypt this week to discuss “the day after” the war in Gaza, Mohammad Mustafa, the authority’s prime minister, said on Sept. 25.
The scheduled meeting, which Mustafa confirmed in a statement to the Ma’an news agency, comes amid Saudi reports that the two factions have reached an understanding on a joint “civil administration” in the enclave.
Jerusalem has consistently stated that under no circumstances will Hamas be allowed to govern the Gaza Strip after the war concludes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, that “if Hamas stays in power, it will regroup, rearm and attack Israel again and again and again, as it has vowed to do. So, Hamas has got to go.”
The premier emphasized that Jerusalem “will reject any role for Hamas in a post-war Gaza. We don’t seek to resettle Gaza. What we seek is a demilitarized and de-radicalized Gaza. Only then can we ensure that this round of fighting will be the last round of fighting.”
