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Role Reversal: Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Israel for ‘Acts of Terror’ Against Hezbollah
People rush to a soccer field hit by a Hezbollah rocket in the majority-Druze northern Israeli town Majdal Shams Photo: Via 924, from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law
While ignoring the thousands of rockets and drones fired at northern Israel by the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah since the start of the current Gaza war, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ruling party, Fatah, continue to express support for Hezbollah against Israel by painting Hezbollah as a victim.
Following Israel’s recent pager and device attacks against Hezbollah, both the PA and Fatah hurried to express their support for “sister Lebanon.”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ office “condemned” the attacks as “acts of terror,” claiming they “harmed innocent civilians”:
The Palestinian [PA] presidential office again strongly condemned the acts of terror against sister Lebanon…
The presidential office emphasized that the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people stand alongside the government and people in sister Lebanon, at a time when it is being subjected to terror that harmed innocent civilians …
The presidential office warned against the results of this severe escalation, which violates Lebanese sovereignty and threatens international peace and security.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 18, 2024]
Also ignoring Hezbollah’s numerous attacks on Israeli civilian areas — and the murder of more than 40 Israelis, including 12 children who were playing soccer — Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash accused Israel of “escalating” the situation and seeking to “undermine the region’s stability” with its “aggressive operations”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The Israeli government is continuing its attempts to escalate the situation and the tension more and more. These aggressive operations that the occupation state [i.e., Israel] and the occupation army are carrying out, whether in Lebanon, in Palestine, or anywhere else, strive to create additional tension and escalation on the military and security level in order to undermine the region’s stability.” [emphasis added]
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Sept. 18, 2024]
Abbas’ Fatah movement also condemned Israel’s “aggressive and criminal operation,” stressing its continued support for Lebanon and its “great appreciation for the support” that Lebanon [ i.e., the terror organization Hezbollah] “has given the [Palestinian] cause”:
The Fatah Movement … condemned the aggressive and criminal operation, due to which hundreds died as Martyrs …
Fatah said that it is standing alongside sister Lebanon and the Lebanese people that is dear to our hearts, and expressed its great appreciation for the support that it has given the [Palestinian] cause and the Palestinian people, despite the burden it bears and despite the sacrifices it is making …
[Fatah] also promised and swore once again to continue on the path of struggle to realize freedom, return, and independence on the Palestinian land and the end of the occupation [i.e., Israel]. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 17, 2024]
In addition to promising to “continue on the path of struggle” by committing more terror attacks, Fatah has also directly called on Hezbollah to continue attacking Israel.
Recently, top PA/Fatah official Jibril Rajoub encouraged Hezbollah and Iran to “punish the Israeli enemy”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The one who endangers regional security and world peace is this unilateral Israeli aggression against Palestine, against Syria, against Lebanon, against Iraq, against Yemen, against Iran, and against the entire world. ..
This [Israeli] enemy only understands the language of force, and it needs to be punished … Punishing Netanyahu and a response – whether by our brothers in Hezbollah, Iran, and any other side – are a message for which [those countries] are responsible… But the military conduct must come simultaneously with a political will on everything concerning fighting the occupation and aggression … We must not let [Israel] continue to behave like the neighborhood bully, and must not let it integrate in the Middle East region and normalize any relations before the fully sovereign [Palestinian] state is established.”
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Aug. 7, 2024]
And let’s not forget the leader that started it all with the massacre and murder on Oct. 7, 2023: Hamas, headed by Yahya Al-Sinwar.
Sinwar is of course thrilled with Hezbollah’s unwavering support for the “resistance to the Zionist project” and the “Nazi Zionist occupation.”
Following the assassination in Iran of Sinwar’s predecessor Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, Sinwar sent a letter to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, thanking him for joining “one of the most honorable battles of the Palestinian people” — Hamas’ “Al-Aqsa Flood”:
Al-Sinwar: “We thank you for your solidarity that is mixed with sincere and noble feelings, which were expressed by your blessed actions in the fronts of the axis of resistance as support and participation in this battle.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Manar website (Hezbollah affiliated), Sept. 14, 2024]
Al-Sinwar emphasized his disregard for human life, stressing his appreciation of all the people who have died for his cause — “Jihad and resistance” against Israel:
“The blood of our people … this pure blood and the blessed convoys of Martyrs will become more decisive and stronger against the Nazi Zionist occupation.
We also emphasize that… the lofty principles that leader Martyr [Ismail Haniyeh] espoused will remain firm and present … foremost among them the unity of the Palestinian people around Jihad and resistance, and also the unity of the nation, and at its core the axis of resistance to the Zionist project.” [emphasis added]
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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