2023-10-15 22:51:03
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has distanced himself from the radical Islamic Hamas ruling in the Gaza Strip. With its policies and actions, Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, Abbas said in a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday, according to the official Wafa news agency. The only legitimate representative of the Palestinians is the PLO, emphasized Abbas.
According to Wafa, Abbas, who heads the West Bank car authority, said he rejects the killing of civilians on both sides. He called on everyone involved to release prisoners. Abbas also spoke out in favor of peaceful resistance to end the occupation of Israel. At the same time, he emphasized, the “Israeli aggression” once morest the Palestinian people must be stopped.
Abbas made the comments in view of an impending Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip with the declared aim of overthrowing Hamas. In recent days there have been signs that the movement is losing support in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip followed Israel’s request to leave the northern Gaza Strip. According to Israeli army figures, 600,000 Palestinians have already fled to the south.
Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades and has repeatedly drawn Israel into wars. A week ago, Hamas fighters managed to penetrate Israeli territory for the first time. In an unprecedented terror campaign, they killed around 1,400 Israelis and around 160 were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip. The barbaric acts led to a wave of solidarity with Israel, but pro-Palestine demonstrations also took place in numerous countries – including Austria – in which slogans of annihilation were also shouted at Israel.
While the PLO held out the prospect of a peace solution with Israel in the 1990s, as a result of which an autonomous administration was established in the Palestinian territories, Hamas took up the cause of the destruction of the Jewish state. The radical Islamic movement is supported by Iran, which is also allied with the Shiite militia Hezbollah, which dominates Lebanon.
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