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Palestinian President Blames Hamas for Continuing War in Gaza
PA President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank August 18, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/Pool
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel and the United States were responsible for an attack in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, but the Western-backed leader also blamed Hamas for the continuing the war in Gaza.
His comments signal rising tension between Abbas’s Fatah faction and the Islamist Hamas group, which accused the Palestinian president of taking Israel’s side.
Israel said the attack was aimed at killing the Hamas military chief Mohammad Deif and his aide. It remained unclear whether Deif or his deputy were killed in the strike.
“The Palestinian presidency condemns the slaughter and holds the Israeli government fully responsible, also the U.S. administration that provides all kinds of support to the occupation and its crimes,” said Abbas in a statement published by his office.
But Abbas, whose authority maintains a limited self-rule in the West Bank, assigned some blame to Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack inside Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were abducted, kicked off the nine-month war in Gaza.
“The presidency sees that by escaping national unity, and providing free pretexts to the occupation state, the Hamas movement is a partner in bearing legal, moral and political responsibility for the continuation of the Israeli war of genocide in Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
Hamas has run Gaza since its 2007 takeover of the coastal territory from Abbas loyalists.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters Abbas’s statement meant the Palestinian Authority “has chosen to be in the same trench with the occupation.”
“Such an attitude will not succeed in blackmailing the resistance or pressuring it,” said Abu Zuhri.
Efforts by Arab mediators, led by Egypt, have so far failed to reconcile power struggles between the two sides.
Another Hamas leader, Basem Naim, who took part in previous reconciliation talks with Abbas’s Fatah faction, said Abbas was to blame for the failure to reach a unity deal.
Naim said Abbas’s comments made him and his authority “partner to the Zioinist enemy and its crimes not only in Gaza but also in all of the Palestinian land.”
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240 Arrested as IDF Dismantles Hamas HQ Inside Kamel Adwan Hospital
Illustrative. Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, October 8, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
i24 News – Israeli forces concluded an operation to dismantle a Hamas terror headquarters in Gaza’s Kamel Adwan Hospital. Some 240 terror suspects were arrested, including the hospital’s director and some 15 terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre.
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IAF Downs Two Gazan Rockets Fired Towards Jerusalem
Illustrative. Rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel, in Gaza May 11, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammd Salem
JNS.org – The Israeli Air Force on Saturday downed two rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip towards Jerusalem.
The attack triggered air-raid sirens in the capital, the Western Negev and the the Judean Foothills (the Shfela).
There were no reports of injuries.
Following the rocket fire, the military again called on Palestinians to evacuate parts of the northern Strip.
“Urgent warning to all those who have not yet evacuated the area specified in the map, and the Beit Hanun area [in the Strip’s northeast] in particular,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted to X.
“This area has been warned many times in the past. The IDF is operating in this area with force. You must evacuate the area immediately and move south towards Salah El Din Road. Moving via another road exposes you to danger,” he added.
On Dec. 11, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired four rockets at southern Israel, setting off sirens in several towns and villages along the border. The Israel Defense Forces intercepted two of the rockets, with the others impacting in open areas, causing no damage.
On Dec. 3, the IAF intercepted one rocket fired from northern Gaza.
The IDF’s year-plus-long offensive against Hamas in the enclave has greatly curbed rocket fire from the Strip, although Palestinian terrorists still intermittently target the Jewish state.
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Putin Apologizes Over ‘Tragic Incident’ with Azerbaijan Airlines Plane Crash
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
i24 News – Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev for what he said represented a “tragic incident” in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed on Wednesday.
Flight J2-8243 crashed in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. At least 38 people were killed while 29 survived.
“Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
“It was noted in the conversation that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was traveling according to its schedule, repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” the Kremlin said.
The post Putin Apologizes Over ‘Tragic Incident’ with Azerbaijan Airlines Plane Crash first appeared on Algemeiner.com.