Has Abbas retracted his disavowal of Hamas?
After being published for hours, and without specifying the reasons, the Palestinian news agency (WAFA) modified the statements of the President of the Palestinian Authority yesterday, in which he distanced himself from the Hamas movement and the “Storm Al-Aqsa” operation launched by Palestinian factions, stating that it “does not represent the Palestinian people.”
The statements published by the agency on its website and circulated by local and Arab media came during a phone call between Abbas and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, where both discussed the Israeli occupation’s brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s attack on Israeli military sites and settlements.
Abbas had said during the phone call with Maduro: “Hamas‘s policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people,” according to a report by WAFA before the modification.
Abbas emphasized the “rejection of the killing of civilians on both sides, and the call for the release of civilians, prisoners, and detainees on both sides,” as reported by WAFA.
During the call with Maduro, Abbas reiterated the “commitment to nonviolence, international legitimacy, signed agreements, peaceful resistance, and political work as a means to achieve our national goals.”
He stressed the “need to seek a political solution to end the occupation,” adding that “Hamas‘s policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people, and it is the policies, programs, and decisions of the Palestine Liberation Organization that represent the Palestinian people.”
Moreover, the Fatah movement witnessed significant tensions between some elite figures of the Palestinian Authority and the prominent leader in the movement, Abbas Zaki.
Sources from Ramallah, as reported by “Ra’i al-Yawm” website, said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was very angry and highly tense due to statements made by the leader Zaki, who is one of the leading figures of the movement in the West Bank.
Zaki had stirred extensive controversy when he stated that Hamas had not fulfilled its role in preparing for the battle, describing the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Abbas as “failed.” He also indicated that the Palestinian leadership had become “entangled in the peace project,” confirming that “the Palestinian people are greater than their leadership, and resistance has triumphed in Gaza.”
