Mahmoud Abbas “cannot claim to be any different from Hamas” as long as he rewards terrorists for their attacks, Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said on Thursday after the Palestinian Authority chief called the Islamist terrorist group “Sons of dogs.”
“Abu Mazen is one of the world’s leading Holocaust deniers, a vile antisemite, and a sworn enemy of the State of Israel,” the Cabinet minister told JNS, using Abbas’s kunya, or Arabic nickname.
In rare televised remarks broadcast from Ramallah on Wednesday, Abbas had 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.
Abbas accused the rival terrorist group of “inflicting severe damage to the Palestinian cause” since it took control of the Strip in a 2007 coup.
“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 Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, killings and hostage-takings, 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.
Egypt and China-brokered reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, which violently took over control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in June 2007, have apparently broken down since the latter terrorist group announced the signing of a deal 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 Palestine Liberation Organization, which controls the P.A., under a “unified Palestinian-Arab vision.”
The Islamist group reportedly gave its blessing to Abbas’s proposal to establish a “government of technocrats” whose purpose would be the reconstruction of Gaza after the war prompted by the Oct. 7 onslaught.
