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Despite Endless Aid and Help, Palestinian Authority Calls America ‘Head of the Snake’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the Czernin Palace, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 31, 2024. Photo: Peter David Josek/Pool via REUTERS
The US has spent $320 million on a floating port to help Gazans, and to ease the entrance of humanitarian aid to residents during the ongoing war. It has also been the driving force curbing Israel’s military campaign, yet Palestinians are busy biting the hand that feeds them.
A political commentator, who is frequently interviewed by official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, recently labeled the American administration “the head of the snake, the head of evil, and the axis of evil,” falsely claiming that the US-funded port was used to help Israel prepare for and carry out its rescue operation of four Israeli hostages from the Nuseirat refugee camp:
Kamal Zakarneh: “The American administration is the head of the snake, the head of evil, and the axis of evil concerning the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people in general.
The [American] naval pier that was supposed to serve for bringing in [humanitarian] aid was used to commit the Nuseirat [refugee camp] massacre … From there the American Delta Force, technological equipment, and things related to the security situation and discovering the location of the [Israeli] prisoners came in … Maybe the American Delta Force are the ones who carried out the operation.”
Official PA TV host: “Washington denied this.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, June 10, 2024]
Earlier in the war, before the port was built, Fatah’s Shabiba Youth Movement likewise announced that “the American administration is the head of terror,” adding that:
The criminal Biden, [US Secretary of State] Blinken, and the heads of their oppressive government are now placing themselves alongside Hitler, Mussolini, and the rest of the war criminals and perpetrators of crimes of genocide throughout history.” [emphasis added]
[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 9, 2023]
The libel about the port being used to help Israel free the hostages adds to previous libels about the floating port. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, has claimed that the port is just an “Israeli-American plot to expel Gazans” as Palestinian Media Watch reported:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The floating port is an attempt to throw dust in [our] eyes. It is an attempt to keep the situation in the Gaza Strip under Israeli rule and Israeli sovereignty…
What we fear is that this floating port will constitute a prelude to carrying out the Israeli plot that strives to expel the Gaza Strip residents through different ports.
[Facebook, May 18, 2024]
Earlier on Facebook, Al-Habbash had criticized the US for supporting Israel against the terror organization Hamas, calling the entire administration “criminal”: “Behind them [Israel] is only the criminal American administration led by criminal [US] President [Joe] Biden and his criminal [US] Secretary of State [Antony Blinken], who are sponsoring this occupation and its crimes.”
A host on official PA TV stated that “the US is fighting the Palestinian people with an Israeli arm”:
Secretary-General of the International Academic Campaign against Israel Ramzi Oudeh: “America, with all of these [UN] resolutions [calling for a ceasefire] that it is neutralizing with a veto… before the entire world the US has become a partner in the act of aggression (i.e., the 2023 Gaza war). It is a partner not only in the legal and international defense of Israel, but also a partner in terms of supplying weapons, tanks, planes, and launchers…”
Official PA TV host: “The US is the one fighting the Palestinian people but with an Israeli arm…”
Ramzi Oudeh: “Israel is originally an imperialist, colonialist, settler project – imperialist in the sense that imperialism created it in this region, imperialism feeds it, and imperialism is still defending it… Do we expect that this state [the US] will defend the Palestinian civilians? Do we expect that this state would agree to any resolution for stopping the war? On the contrary, its position supports the position of Israel.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Feb. 21, 2024]
Al-Habbash has also blamed the US for bearing “full responsibility for the ‘holocaust’ in the Gaza Strip due to its support for the Israeli aggression.” He has described America’s vetoes at the UN in favor of Israel as “additional American aggression and a continuation of the hostility against our people by the American administration.”
In the same statement, Al-Habbash suggested that “the Arab and Islamic states change the language of discourse with the US and speak with it in the only way it understands — the language of interests,” by way of “exerting pressure” on the US “through its interests, which are spread in the states of the Islamic world” [WAFA, official PA news agency, Feb. 20, 2024].
Given the ongoing Palestinian condemnations, libels, and even open threats against America and its interests, American leaders would be well advised to rethink whether their massive economic assistance to the Palestinians indeed serves aspirations for stability and security in the region.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Despite Endless Aid and Help, Palestinian Authority Calls America ‘Head of the Snake’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.