Abbas condemns Israeli attack on Al Mawasi but blames Hamas for continuing war in Gaza

Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbascondemned the Israeli attack this Saturday Al Mawasi in the humanitarian sectorSouth of the Gaza Strip, but in an unusual message despite differences with the Islamists, it also blamed Hamas for continuing the war in the enclave.

The President believes that Hamas – by preventing national unity and providing unnecessary excuses to the occupying state – is a partner that bears legal, moral and political responsibility for continuing the Israeli war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip, with all the suffering, destruction and slaughter that this causes to our people,” a statement from Abbas indicated.

Abbas is president of the Palestinian Authority, controlled by his secular Fatah party, which was forcibly expelled from the Gaza Strip by Hamas in 2007 after the Islamists took power after winning legislative elections a year earlier.

“The president calls on the Hamas movement to prioritize supreme national interests and end the pretext of occupation in order to stop this open genocide against our people,” the message published in the official Palestinian agency Wafa said.

Abbas also calls the Israeli attack on Al Mawasi purposeful Hamas’s ‘number two’ and military chiefs, Mohammed Deifwho was reportedly hiding in a house with his right hand, Rafaa Salameh,

According to Hamas officials, at least 90 Palestinians were killed and about 300 injured in the attack in Al Mawasi in the Khan Younis region. Israeli Prime Minister, benjamin netanyahuSaid that “there is still no absolute certainty” that the two were eliminated, but Israeli officials assured that they carried out the attack based on reliable intelligence.

«The Palestinian president condemns this massacre and holds fully responsible the Israeli government and the United States administration, which provides all kinds of support to the occupation and its crimes, and a string of daily massacres caused by the occupation in the Strip, Gaza and the West Bank,» Abbas said. He added, “They are absolutely war crimes, crimes against humanity and a genocidal war.”