Al-Zahar: Abbas is hindering the work of the consensus government

Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is hindering the work of the consensus government because he is preventing officials from coming to the Gaza Strip and has refrained from including Gaza’s needs in the government’s budget, Felesteen Online reported on Thursday.

Al-Zahar also accused the head of the Palestinian Authority of disrupting the work of the Palestinian Legislative Council, as happened before in 2007.

The Hamas official told Felesteen Online that Abbas’s accusations against his movement – that it disrupted the work of the unity government in Gaza – were simply not true.

“This man cannot be believed. He said that Hamas destroyed 15 houses that belonged to Fatah’s leaders in Gaza, but Hamas did not destroy a single house,” Al-Zahar said.

He noted that Abbas has made a lot of false statements, adding that if the man is such a liar then he should not be holding the position he is holding.

“We are facing an odd situation. He is accusing Hamas of speaking the language of Israel, and in reality it is he who cooperates with Israel and engages with it in security and coordination. At the same time, he is accusing Hamas and Israel of conspiring against him?”

In a speech that Abbas delivered on Tuesday, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, he blamed Hamas’s leadership for the recent destruction of the houses of Fatah’s leaders in Gaza, but without providing any evidence.