Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Hamas of needlessly extending fighting in Gaza, causing a high death toll.
Abbas told Palestine TV in remarks broadcast Friday that “it was possible for us to avoid all of that, 2,000 martyrs, 10,000 injured, 50,000 houses (damaged or destroyed).”
Israel and Hamas terrorists fought for 50 days before reaching a truce on Tuesday.
More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians. Seventy one people on the Israeli side, including six civilians, were killed.
Several Egyptian mediated cease-fire attempts failed. Hamas eventually accepted almost the same truce offered at the beginning.
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority formed a unity government backed by Hamas earlier this year. Abbas questioned the future of that arrangement in the interview.
(AP)
17 Responses
Isn’t politics wonderful?!!
Unusual he says that in public.
Maybe he’s considering having a free election
I HATE THIS CLOWN
It is Elul after all – time for Teshuva!
how’s this slamming Hamas?
One could look at this cynically and say while Abbas publicly denounces the government of Israel he privately appreciates Israel weakening his political rivals.
does this mezn he wont press charges on Israel?
no?
ok
What did he say about Israel?
I find it amazing that with all the death and carnage in Gaza, the IDF did not manage to kill a single Hamas fighter.
Actually, I do understand. According to Hamas’ set of operational definitions, all Israelis between the ages of 0 and 120 are combatants and all Gaza residents, armed and unarmed, missile crews and snipers, are innocent civilians.
Will he be executed for siding with the enemy?
He’s always itchin his chin!
Not by the hair of my chinny, chin chin! What a phoney! Didn’t his al aksa brigade boast that hundreds of the rockets shot into Israel were done by them!??
#9- Where are you getting the information that not a single Hamas fighter was killed, from? Just made it up?
i think #9 meant according to hamas no members were killed-all casualties were innocent citizens
not the actual reality of what happened
#12 again showing he is a nasah shmatah
To commenter no. 12: Please re-read comment no. 9 very slowly and carefully, and then tell us whether or not you want to withdraw your comment.
As for the bulk of the other comments, I am puzzled: Abbas has said exactly what every politician is saying about the Israel-Hamas conflict, and yet nearly all commenters condemn him. IF (that’s a big “if”) Abbas agreed tomorrow to disarmament of the West Bank and Gaza, and sovereignty of the State of Israel over the territory it now holds, what would you say to that? Or do you think the State of Israel can occupy all of Eretz Yisrael before Moshiach arrives?
The first sentence in the last paragraph is wrong. There is no Palestinian unity government. The current Palestinian government consists of the same political independents as before the agreement, and has no Hamas members. The second sentence is support for what I suspected at the time of the agreement, that there will never be a unity government between Hamas and Fatah.
I re-read the comment and I apologize to #9 for taking his comment out of context.