Abbas conditionally accepted Hamas, Israel truce

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has conditionally accepted the truce between Hamas and Israel, stressing that “it must not exceed the understandings that ended the Israeli offensive on Gaza in 2014”.

Member of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)’s Executive Committee, Ahmad Majdalani, added that the truce “must not include any political section,” stressing that:

The PA has always been worried about the consequences of the truce between Hamas and Israel, fearing it would have indirect political outcomes, but the PA has decided to accept the truce in order to stop more humanitarian suffering being inflicted on the Gaza residents and to stop more victims being harmed.

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Majdalani explained that Cairo would resume reconciliation efforts – aimed at bringing Hamas and Fatah together – next week. He emphasised that these Egyptian-led efforts did not include the Qatari funds being paid to Palestinian civil service employees in Gaza, revealing that the PA and the European Union (EU) reject this approach “because this will be a financial support for Hamas and will reinforce its control over the Strip”.

It is worth noting that Fatah and PA media have begun a defamation campaign against Hamas and the other Palestinian factions involved in the truce understandings. “Hamas exploited women, children and the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza to achieve narrow factional interests,” Fatah spokesman in the occupied West Bank Osama aA-Qawasmi said, adding that: “Hamas reinforced a dirty equation: Blood for money”.

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