PA repays US generosity with hatred, says port for humanitarian aid is “plot to expel Gazans”
US spent $320 million on floating port to aid Gazans; Abbas’ advisor says it’s a “plot to expel Gaza Strip residents”
Palestinian political commentator: The port in Gaza is an Israeli-American plot to “force residents to leave the Gaza Strip” and “annex it”
Few are the wars where one side agrees to transfer humanitarian aid to the other side’s civilians while the war is raging, especially when knowing that enemy fighters are taking the aid. Nevertheless, Israel is doing just that, and the US is a major part of the effort.
The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars delivering aid to Gaza. Then, with Israel's agreement, it built a floating port at a reported cost of $320 million to simplify aid deliveries via the sea.
The PA, however, as usual, can't help but to take everything positive that Israel and the US do and to twist it into something negative and harmful. It just had to take this extraordinary American gesture and describe it as deliberate deception by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who is a senior advisor to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, explained that the port is an attempt to continue “Israeli rule” in the Gaza Strip. He also stressed that the port is part of an “Israeli plot” to “expel” the residents of Gaza:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The floating port is an attempt to throw dust in [our] eyes. It is an attempt to keep the situation in the Gaza Strip under Israeli rule and Israeli sovereignty…
What we fear is that this floating port will constitute a prelude to carrying out the Israeli plot that strives to expel the Gaza Strip residents through different ports.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, May 18, 2024]
The libel was seconded by Palestinian political commentator Kamal Zakarneh. He claimed that the port was built by the US to transfer humanitarian aid “for the sake of appearances.” According to Zakarneh, the US and Israel really want to “take control” over the Gaza Strip and “force the residents to leave” so they can “annex” it:
Palestinian political commentator Kamal Zakarneh: “The naval passageway that the US has created in the Gaza Strip began to transfer a certain amount of aid, aid for the sake of appearances. I think this is a prelude for something much more dangerous than this so-called humanitarian aid. There is a joint Israeli-American policy of taking control, and their goal is to perpetuate the control over the Gaza Strip and the control over the lives of the Gaza Strip residents… and everything connected to the life necessities there, starting with closing the land passageways… and leaving the naval passageway as the only opening to the Gaza Strip. There is great concern that they will force the residents through economic, security, and social pressure to leave and empty the Gaza Strip of the residents, and annex it to the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel).”
[Official PA TV, May 19, 2024]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented how most of the humanitarian aid transferred by Israel to the Gaza Strip never reaches civilians, rather it is confiscated by Hamas and given to Hamas’ terrorists. Even so, Israel continues to allow the aid deliveries. Read the following PMW reports:
Civilian eyewitnesses in Gaza: Hamas steals the humanitarian aid: “Aid arrives, but the [Palestinian] people doesn’t get any of it”
Hamas controls ATMs, cash, and the humanitarian aid trucks
Fatah: Hamas kills aid workers and steals food for itself