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Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor Says Israel ‘Orchestrated’ Oct. 7
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
In a horrific example of Palestinian Authority (PA) hate speech, Mahmoud Al-Habbash — senior advisor to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas — has announced that Israel itself was behind the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas.
According to Abbas’ advisor, Israel “perhaps … prepared the conditions and led Hamas” to massacre, rape, burn alive, and kidnap Israelis, to use Hamas’ terror as a pretext to eliminate the Palestinian cause.
Al-Habbash openly suggested that the Israeli government wanted Oct. 7 to happen and may have even collaborated with Hamas to make it possible. He claimed that Israel’s supposed indifference to its hostages in Gaza proves this theory, alleging that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s real goal was to use the massacre as an excuse to carry out a “pre-planned” operation to destroy Palestinian national aspirations.
This is just the latest example of the PA attempting to shift blame from the murderers and rapists to the victims. But accusing Israel of planning its own worst massacre since the Holocaust is a grotesque low:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “This [Israeli] government was not really interested in the [Israeli] hostages from the beginning. Perhaps the coming days will reveal this issue, which is now being talked about in Israel by the media outlets and Israeli commentators regarding the role of [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s government in the events of Oct. 7, [2023].
Perhaps it prepared the conditions and led Hamas to this issue, because it had a plan that it wanted to carry out in the Gaza Strip using what happened on Oct. 7 as an excuse.
It is now carrying out this plan, which is based on eliminating the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian existence, and perhaps it used Hamas on this issue. Hamas may have even assisted, in one way or another, this Israeli objective.” [emphasis added]
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, April 21, 2025]
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed other PA officials making similar libelous statements, claiming Israel itself carried out the Oct. 7 massacre:
- PA Oct. 7 massacre denial: Israelis “killed their civilians, committed all these crimes, and burned the bodies”
- Palestinian Authority Oct. 7 libels: The PA/Fatah denied Hamas’ massacre, alleged Israel committed the atrocities and wanted the attack
- October 7 denial: Palestinian Authority lies led to worldwide phenomenon
Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah Justice. In August 2019, Abbas dismissed all his advisors by Presidential decree. It is unclear what their status is today.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor Says Israel ‘Orchestrated’ Oct. 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
The post Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
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
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
The post Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
The post Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.