“Gangs” affiliated with the Hamas terrorist group have been looting humanitarian aid meant for civilians in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said over the weekend.
Abbas condemned the “looting and theft carried out by criminal gangs targeting warehouses and storage facilities of humanitarian aid,” speaking in an official statement published by the P.A.'s Wafa news site on Friday.
According to the P.A., which controls most of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria but was violently ousted from Gaza by Hamas in a June 2007 coup, “Hamas-affiliated gangs” have been “primarily responsible” for the theft.
Abbas said Palestinians would “not forgive these disgraceful acts committed in such a critical time,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in the coastal enclave.
He warned that the gangs were “well known to the Palestinian public” and would “top the blacklist to be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with the law at the appropriate time.”
Hamas has looted at least 60% of the aid that Israel allowed to enter Gaza, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) revealed last year. On March 2, Jerusalem halted the aid supply following Hamas’s rejection of another U.S.-backed truce-for-hostages proposal.
Egypt- and China-brokered reconciliation talks between Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction and Hamas have apparently broken down since the latter terrorist organization announced the signing of an agreement in July.
P.A. sources previously told Sky News Arabia that Hamas had approved a three-phase plan leading to “complete reconciliation” and the Gaza-based terrorist group joining the PLO terrorist organization, which controls the P.A., under a “unified Palestinian-Arab vision.”
Hamas reportedly gave its blessing to Abbas’s proposal to establish a government whose purpose would be the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the war prompted by its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist massacre.
However, on April 23, Abbas called on Hamas to “end its control over Gaza, hand over all its affairs to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the legitimate Palestinian National Authority, refrain from carrying arms, transform into a political party that operates according to the laws of the Palestinian state and adheres to international legitimacy.
“The first priority is to stop the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip,” declared the octogenarian P.A. chairman. Abbas added, “This must be stopped—hundreds are being killed every day. Why don’t you hand over the American hostages? Sons of dogs, release those you are holding and put an end to this story. Shut down their [Israel’s] excuses. End this!”
It was not clear whether Abbas, who has yet to publicly condemn Oct. 7, called for the release of all 59 remaining captives, or only Americans.
Members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “military” arm of Abbas’s Fatah movement, participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, and the P.A. has financially rewarded Oct. 7 terrorists through its “pay-for-slay” fund.
