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Palestinian Authority Says It Stands Together with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Using Terror
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
The possibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA) becoming the umbrella for designated terrorist organizations is becoming more real.
On Tuesday, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported that senior Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub declared that there is nothing standing in the way of unity between Fatah and Hamas, since Hamas’ atrocities of October 7th elevated it to the level of a national liberation movement like Fatah.
This declaration came on the heels of many similar statements by PA/Fatah leaders — both in support of unity with terror organizations, and explicit calls for terror.
Top Fatah official Abbas Zaki recently stressed this, stating that Fatah is “one unit” together with terror organizations Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and “every fighting faction” — in other words, anyone who carries out terror against Israel:
Al-Mayadeen TV host: “The meetings in Cairo between the Fatah Movement and Hamas Movement … The headline of these meetings is establishing a committee to manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip. Will this round of meetings be different?” …
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “Our delegation is setting out [to Cairo] with clearest understandings that it is impossible to take action for the Gaza Strip except with mutual agreement and understanding with the brothers in Hamas” …
There is no Palestinian disagreement now that people could exploit. We, Hamas, [Islamic] Jihad, and every fighting faction constitute one unit.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Mayadeen TV (Lebanon), YouTube channel, Nov. 2, 2024]
A Jordanian journalist interviewed on official PA TV was even more explicit, demonizing Israel as “a satanic plant,” that should be attacked “with rocks, knives, and resistance by all means” — in other words, terror:
Jordanian journalist Ramadan Rawashdeh: “The [pro-Palestinian] noble-hearted in Britain and the world knew that [Israel] is a satanic plant in the region, which is not like us [Arabs] in terms of language, skin color, ethnicity, or customs …
Many invaders have come into this region and they were defeated. I am convinced that one day Israel will necessarily be defeated… [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu said: ‘I will bring security to Israel.’ We need to bring about his failure with daily work, with rocks, knives, resistance – resistance by all means.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Capital of Capitals – Amman, Nov. 14, 2024]
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The Palestinian people has no choice but to remain, stand firm, hold onto the land and the right, and resist with all possible capabilities at our disposal.
The occupation (i.e., Israel) and the aggression have left us no choice but to remain or die.” [emphasis added]
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Oct. 8, 2024]
The same message was echoed by another Fatah official who, when reminiscing about former PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, stressed that Fatah “will continue to hold onto the weapon” as did Arafat:
Fatah Nablus Branch Secretary Muhammad Hamdan: “We see in [the exhibit’s] pictures how [former PLO Chairman Arafat’s] voice echoes in the UN (refers to Arafat’s 1974 UN speech), how he reminds us and says: ‘I have come bearing a freedom fighter’s gun and an olive branch. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.’
This is what clarifies that we will continue to draw the weapon until we receive all our national rights.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Nov. 17, 2024]
PMW has documented Abbas Zaki’s pride in Fatah terror against Israel during the current Gaza war:
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “People [in the world] were shocked by the heroic [Palestinian] stand … The entire NATO alliance and all the capabilities of the West, and with them the mercenaries and collaborators [with Israel], did not succeed in silencing the fighters’ rifles and rockets … I think that ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood’ [Hamas’ name for its October 7 attack] will yet be taught at universities.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, June 2, 2024]
Palestine Today TV host: “The severity [of the situation] concerning the Al-Aqsa Mosque, does it not require that the resistance (i.e., terror) be activated more and more in the West Bank, and that its chained hands be released? Let us say it frankly: Due to what the PA is doing to prevent any expression of the resistance … How can this tradition [of armed struggle] be preserved, and Fatah’s identity of resistance [too], which the Palestinian people has known since the first bullet?”
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “Is there recognition by the forces in Gaza that [Fatah’s] Al-Aqsa Brigades are [among them]?”
Host: “Yes.”
Abbas Zaki: “Then here is Fatah. In the West Bank, it was forbidden to carry a knife [before the 1993 Oslo Accords], now there are fighters there.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, June 2, 2024]
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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