‘Insulting’: Hamas condemns Abbas’s remarks on Gaza captives

Palestinian chief Mahmoud Abbas says retaining the captives offers Israel with justification for its assaults on Gaza.

Hamas has condemned remarks made by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who urged the Palestinian group ruling Gaza to launch Israeli captives and lay down arms.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim stated on Thursday that Abbas’s remarks made a day earlier have been “insulting”.

“Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our individuals,” he stated.

Abbas on Wednesday urged Hamas to free all captives, saying retaining them supplied Israel with “excuses” to assault Gaza.

“Hamas has given the felony occupation excuses to commit its crimes within the Gaza Strip, probably the most distinguished being the holding of hostages,” Abbas stated at a gathering in Ramallah, the PA’s seat within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.

“I’m the one paying the worth, our individuals are paying the worth, not Israel. My brother, simply hand them over.”

“Daily there are deaths,” Abbas stated. “You sons of canine, hand over what you might have and get us out of this” ordeal, he added, levelling a harsh Arabic epithet at Hamas.

Lengthy rift

There have been deep political and ideological divisions between Abbas’s Fatah occasion and Hamas for almost 20 years.

Abbas and the PA have usually accused Hamas of undermining Palestinian unity, whereas Hamas has criticised the previous for collaborating with Israel and cracking down on West Financial institution dissent.

The Palestinian Mujahideen Motion, which cut up from Abbas’s Fatah within the 2000s, issued an announcement on Telegram on Wednesday condemning Abbas’s remarks.

“We strongly condemn the offensive statements made by President Abbas in the course of the Central Council assembly relating to the resistance and our individuals’s resistance fighters, disregarding the sacrifices and battle of our individuals and ignoring the struggling and ongoing sacrifices of the prisoners,” learn the assertion.

“We condemn the PA management’s continued pursuit of this discourse, which criminalizes the resistance and absolves the occupation of its ongoing crimes towards our individuals for many years, particularly the genocidal warfare towards Gaza, the annexation and Judaization of the West Financial institution and Jerusalem, and the extreme struggling endured by our valiant prisoners.”

The motion additionally known as on Abbas to challenge an apology for his remarks.

“We name on the President of the Palestinian Authority to apologize for this offensive speech and reverse all steps that reinforce division and align with Zionist will. We name on him to return to the embrace of the individuals and their selections and to stop pursuing the absurd path of give up and compromise.”

Since Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza resumed on March 18, not less than 1,928 individuals have been killed in Gaza, bringing the full dying toll because the warfare erupted to not less than 51,305, based on the enclave’s Ministry of Well being.

Talks on a brand new ceasefire have thus far been fruitless, and a Hamas delegation is in Cairo for renewed negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.