Abbas Will Break Unity Agreement With Hamas If P.A. Can’t Operate in Gaza
Mahmoud Abbas. Image by Getty Images
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would break his government’s unity agreement with the Islamist Hamas if it does not allow the unity government to operate in Gaza.
“We will not accept the situation with Hamas continuing as it is at the moment,” Abbas said late Saturday night in Cairo, where he is scheduled to address the Arab League.
“We won’t accept a partnership with them if the situation continues like this in Gaza where there is a shadow government running the territory,” he said, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
“If Hamas won’t accept a Palestinian State with one government, one law, and one weapon – then there won’t be any partnership between us,” said Abbas. “This is our condition, and we won’t back away from it.”
Abbas told reporters in Cairo that the Palestinian leadership is making every effort to help the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and is working to provide all forms of assistance.
He announced that there are some 461,643 displaced people in Gaza with at least 280,000 of them in United Nations shelters and schools.
He also said some 18,000 homes were completely destroyed, and 41,000 homes partially destroyed, and that 145 schools were damaged, with 75 totally destroyed. Dozens of public buildings, including schools and mosques, also were destroyed.
Abbas estimated that it will take $7 billion to rebuild what was destroyed in Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, and that it will take at least 15 years.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
