PA: Hamas “brought hell on the Palestinian people,” serving their Iranian “masters”
Hamas serves their Iranian “masters,” dead Palestinians are just “human sacrifices” – official PA daily
“The Palestinian people did not want Oct. 7, and it was not consulted with about Oct. 7” – Abbas’ advisor
“One of the Hamas leaders... knows that the hell that his organization Hamas brought on the Palestinian people (i.e., Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre) is more difficult and terrible than the first Nakba of 1948 (i.e., “the catastrophe,” of Israel’s establishment), yet he accuses the PA of treason and describes it as ‘protecting the security of Israel’”– official PA daily
Iran supports and “nurtures” Hamas and gives it “monetary and military aid,” “plotting” to create “an alternative” to the PLO and the PA – official PA daily
“Iran is dictating to Hamas what it wants” – Abbas’ advisor
Hamas “sentenced you [Palestinians] to death because they [Hamas] followed Khamenei and traded in your people” – Fatah
“Khamenei’s sin against the Palestinian people is unforgivable" – official PA daily
Hamas will “assassinate” any PA/Fatah affiliated Palestinian who will be part of Israel’s “alternative rule” in the Gaza Strip – official PA daily
Hamas is selfish – no Palestinian prisoner wants freedom at the price of tens of thousands of dead Gazan civilians – Fatah official
Iran never gave the Palestinian people anything, instead it funded Hamas, helping it to the coup in 2007 – Abbas’ advisor
The Palestinian Authority and Fatah both cheered Hamas’ invasion and massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023. They have been rejoicing that Israel’s war to eliminate Hamas’ terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has turned global public opinion against Israel. However, the PA/Fatah considers itself the great loser as Hamas’ popularity has soared while support for the PA and Mahmoud Abbas has become almost non-existent.
Although still calling for unity with Hamas, inviting it to join the PLO, the PA and Fatah are now accusing Hamas of not acting out of concern for the “Palestinian cause”, but out of political ambition and on orders from Iran.
The PA is increasingly voicing accusations that Iran is not interested in the Palestinian people at all but only in promoting its own position in the Middle East—a position Iran can solidify by “inciting against” and “harming” the PLO and the PA while backing Hamas.
While Palestinian Media Watch already reported in May that the PA and Fatah as well as Gazan civilians were criticizing Hamas, today the PA is outright demonizing Hamas and Iran as the enemies of the Palestinian people.
The following are examples of the PA’s harsh vilification of both Iran and Hamas:
PA criticizes Hamas and Iran for Oct. 7 massacre
- PA angry it was “not consulted with about Oct. 7”
PA Chairman Abbas’ Advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The Palestinian people did not want October 7, [2023] (i.e., Hamas’ massacre), and it was not consulted with about Oct. 7, and now it wants a ceasefire and for the aggression to stop. This is the Palestinian people, and if they [Hamas] want to imagine that there is another people, let them ask the Palestinian people. Let them ask the 2.5 million in the Gaza Strip what they want.... Do they want October 7? Do they want Iran? Do they want the interests of the region? Or do they want to save their children’s lives?”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, June 4, 2024]
- Hamas serves their Iranian “masters,” dead Palestinians are just “human sacrifices” in exchange for money
“The Hamas leaders view the [Palestinian] victims of their hopeless policy as a project of ‘human sacrifices’ permitted for slaughter when and how they want. Not only that, they also dedicate the blood of these Palestinian human sacrifices – which is more precious than all the treasures of the world – to their Persian [Iranian] masters, in order to ensure monetary liquidity.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 22, 2024]
- Hamas “sentenced you [Palestinians] to death, because they followed Khamenei and traded in your people”
Text in shared tweet: “The [1993] Oslo [Accords] returned 750,000 Palestinians to the homeland, and Hamas made them leave. [Former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat took back the Gaza Strip that is resisting, and Hamas returned the occupation to the Gaza Strip. They [Hamas] have sentenced you to death because they followed [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei and traded in your people.”
[Fatah, X (Twitter) account, Nov. 13, 2023]
- Hamas is selfish – No Palestinian prisoner wants freedom at the price of tens of thousands of dead Gazan civilians
Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily Muwaffaq Matar: “A Palestinian national prisoner (i.e., terrorist), even if he is sentenced to life, will never agree that the price of his freedom will be tens of thousands of [Palestinian] Martyrs, hundreds of thousands of wounded people, and the destruction of three-fourths of the Gaza Strip…
But Hamas, unfortunately, is dragging its feet and maneuvering in order to achieve a political goal that has no connection to the Palestinian people’s supreme national interest.”
[Al-Hadath TV (Saudi Arabia), YouTube channel, June 10, 2024]
- Oct. 7 was an “Iranian decision,” Iranian interests and support of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip has worsened poverty
“17 years of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip… have worsened the scarcity and poverty in the wounded Gaza Strip, and strengthened a [Fatah-Hamas] rift that the Israeli occupation provided everything needed for its continuation. To preserve the rift, [the occupation] enabled the monetary funding to pass through its security institutions, at a time when the smuggling continued of rockets of the regional interests – and more precisely Iranian [interests] – into the wounded Gaza Strip. These are [the rockets] that [Hamas leader Yahya] Al-Sinwar always threatened that they would crush Tel Aviv and erase it, but in six destructive wars that Israel waged against the Gaza Strip, Tel Aviv was not crushed even once… As for ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood’ (Hamas' name for Oct. 7 attack), it has become clear that the decision to carry it out was Iranian, after Iranian [Supreme] Leader [Ayatollah] Khamenei spoke about it – which the Israeli occupation used as an excuse to launch the war for the total destruction of the Palestinian cause.”
[Editorial in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 4, 2024]
- “Iran is dictating to Hamas what it wants” – Abbas’ advisor
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “If you were to ask any Palestinian person, young or old, he would tell you that Iran stands behind Hamas and behind the operations (i.e., terror attacks) carried out by Hamas. Everyone knows this. There is no need for commentary here. All the Palestinians are aware of the connection between Hamas and Iran and that Iran is dictating to Hamas what it wants. We heard this and saw this openly when one of them announced that what happened on Oct. 7 was revenge for the killing of [IRGC Quds Force Commander] Qasem Soleimani (i.e., killed in an American drone strike), and Hamas and the factions loyal to Iran are the ones who carried out this operation.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, June 3, 2024]
- “Khamenei’s sin against the Palestinian people is unforgivable”
“In spite of the Israeli war of annihilation against the Palestinian people throughout Palestine, and especially in the Gaza Strip (refers to the 2023 Gaza war; see note below)… Iranian [Supreme] Leader [Ayatollah] Ali Khamenei demands ‘not to hang hopes on the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.’ In other words, he wants to sacrifice the Palestinian people and push it to suicide…
Khamenei’s sin against the Palestinian people is unforgivable because it is big and severe and in no way serves the interests and goals of the Palestinian people and leadership, as he is interested in a continuation of the Israeli and American war of annihilation.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 5, 2024]
Iran supports and “nurtures” Hamas to “create an alternative” to the PLO and the PA
- Iran plots to create takeover from the PLO/PA
“Tehran supported Hamas so that it would serve as its fist of steel and fire to carry out the plot to create an alternative to the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people… [Hamas’] adherents gave religious Zionism excuses to flood the Gaza Strip with ‘the Blood and Destruction Flood’ (refers to ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood,’ Hamas' name for its terror war against Israel; see note below -Ed.), which in Khamenei’s opinion ‘took place at the right time.’ … Khamenei, like the Hamas leaders, does not care about the awful losses of the Palestinian people in life and property since Oct. 7, [2023] (i.e., Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel), which currently must be viewed as ‘the Iran Flood’!”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 4, 2024]
- Iran and Israel share common goal: destruction of the PLO/PA
“The perfect and precise coordination between the [Iranian] Ayatollah regime and the religious Zionist system and its current head [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu was revealed,as the goal of them both is clear and open: To empty the Palestinian national liberation movement of its ideology, values, principles, and goals, and to turn it into a mere pawn in the hands of forces and states! …
The regime in Tehran has put an end to the doubts and shown that the heads of Hamas – who played tricks and said that Hamas is a national movement – are lying. But it also gave the occupation system (i.e., Israel) an additional excuse to expand the bloody attack of annihilation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, as its military wing took responsibility for the Oct. 7 [2023] operation in the Gaza Strip Envelope settlements (sic., refers to Hamas’ invasion and massacre in towns in sovereign Israel), and gave Benjamin Netanyahu great credit, due to his claim that Hamas is fighting for the Iranian regime…
We think that Hamas will not be cleared of blame…
They gave the Zionist colonialist and terrorist occupation system excuses to launch a bloody attack of annihilation, which has no precedent in the new era and anywhere in the world, to the point that a worse Nakba than the 1948 Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) has befallen our people…
This sinking in the swamp of subordination to foreigners will constitute a strong incentive for the Palestinian people to demand an accounting from Hamas in every refugee camp, town, village, and city in the homeland and the diaspora, and in every family that lost its loved ones, until these people will understand that the Palestinian blood is only given for the homeland, and that spilling it in vain for foreigners and foreign agendas is ‘the greatest plot.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 2023]
- “Joint goal of Hamas and Israel: To prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state”
“The Hamas leaders… do not understand the meaning of adhering to the national principles...Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in Hitler’s government, who said ‘Continue to lie until people believe you’, is jealous of [Hamas]!
One of the Hamas leaders, Musa Abu Marzouq, does not stop taking hallucinogens before every meeting with a media outlet…
Musa Abu Marzouq knows that the hell that his organization Hamas brought on the Palestinian people is more difficult and terrible than the first Nakba of 1948 (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), yet he accuses the PA of treason and describes it as ‘protecting the security of Israel.’ This is because he thinks he can blind the Palestinian people to the fact that his organization [Hamas] is responsible for providing the excuses, which the occupation system (i.e., Israel) waited for to launch the bloody campaign of annihilation against our people, whose peak is in the Gaza Strip (i.e., the 2023 Gaza war; see note below). We do not forget that a joint goal of the two of them – Hamas and Israel – is to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state according to the fundamentals and goals of the [Palestinian] National Liberation Movement [Fatah] and the PLO, the sole legitimate representative. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are a vertebra in the backbone [of Israel].”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 26, 2024]
Earlier in the war, Abbas’ advisor Al-Habbash accused Israel and the US of “creating Hamas to break Palestinian unity”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Who created this irregular situation in the Gaza Strip (i.e., the 2023 Gaza war)? The ones who created it were the US and Israel. And Hamas is nothing more than a tool that has been used intentionally or unintentionally… It is nothing more than a tool that has been used to weaken the Palestinian position and break the Palestinian unity.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, April 21, 2024]
- Iran exploited the “resistance” to support Hamas against the PLO/PA
“The [Iranian] leaders of the regime in Tehran have not ceased intervening in the Palestinian affairs because they wanted an excuse through which to penetrate the Palestinian cause, the Arabs’ central cause, in order to hang their aspirations on it. They found no better way than to ride on the slogan and wave of the ‘resistance’ and the ‘liberation of Jerusalem.’ They established the Quds Forces (i.e., Iranian forces overseeing international terror activity), which has no connection to Jerusalem (i.e., “Al-Quds” in Arabic), but rather it serves as a tool of violence against the Palestinians and the Arabs in general. Despite their significant disagreements with the Muslim Brotherhood, they nurtured ties with the Hamas Movement, gave it monetary and military aid, and participated together with it in incitement against the PLO and the PA…”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 5, 2024]
- Iran interferes in Palestinian national security affairs, disregards loss of Palestinian lives – editorial in official PA daily
“At a time when the residents of the Gaza Strip are the first to call for the end of the war, the senior advisor of the so-called [Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)] Quds Force announces that ‘the Palestinians will receive antiaircraft measures to fight Israel’! Therefore, the senior officials of Tehran and its policy do not appear as anything but those calling to continue the war and even expand it, as long as the civilian Martyr victims are not its own citizens…
Tehran exposes its true face as one of the sides that is igniting a fire in this war... This is blatant interference in Palestinian national security affairs and great disregard for the lives of the residents in the slaughtered Gaza Strip.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 8, 2024]
PA’s anger goes back to Hamas’ coup in 2007
- Iran never gave the Palestinian people anything – Abbas’ advisor criticizes Iran for funding Hamas, helping it to the coup in 2007
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “For the last 70 years or 100 years of conflict with the Israeli occupation, from the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) until now, or from the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the establishment of Israel) until now, or even in the last 20-30 years, what has Iran given the Palestinian people? How many schools has it built in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? How many mosques has it built? How many hospitals has it built? How many boxes of medicine has it given the Palestinian people? The answer is nothing… Let’s go back and examine the Iranian involvement in the Palestinian cause. The first involvement was the coup carried out by Hamas in the Gaza Strip against the PA and against the Palestinian legitimacy in 2007 (see note below -Ed.)… I think that Hamas is no longer interested in its popularity or anything else, what interests it is who is paying and who is funding.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, June 3, 2024]
- Blame for Palestinian suffering is on Israel, but Hamas also responsible since 2007 coup
Saudi Al-Arabiya TV host: “What is your opinion about The New York Times article and the survey that appears in it, according to which the Gaza Strip residents accuse the Hamas Movement for the situation from which they are suffering today (i.e., the 2023 Gaza war; see note below)?”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “For the sake of fairness, we must first of all accuse the Israeli occupation. If not for the Israeli occupation’s existence, we would not all be in this difficult situation. It is true that Hamas bears a great part of the responsibility for the situation that the Palestinian cause is in, not just due to the war but because of what it did in 2007, 17 years ago, when it carried out a coup against the PA. ...
Host: “According to what The New York Times said, there are residents in the Gaza Strip who accuse Hamas of starting a destructive war that today has destroyed the Gaza Strip…”
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Even if that’s true, we must not forget to first and foremost accuse the Israeli occupation… The action (i.e., Hamas’ massacre on Oct. 7, 2023) could be legitimate and desirable, but if its consequences are illegitimate and cause damage - Even in terms of Shari’ah [law], legal experts said that based on the principle of consequences that if the action is lawful but its consequences cause damage, the action itself (i.e., Hamas’ terror war) is unlawful.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, June 15, 2024]
- Fatah official testifies Hamas called to “capture the wives” of Fatah members during 2007 coup, criticizes “subordination” to Iran
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Muwaffaq Matar: “We think that the masses of our people in the Gaza Strip have paid a very, very heavy price as a result of Hamas’ policy and its subordination to external agendas, and particularly that of Persian [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah] Khamenei and the Iranian-Persian project to restore [their] hegemony over the Arab region… Hamas has never had a source of national authority, rather it is actually the one that established the roots of ISIS-ism in the Arab region. I was in the Gaza Strip 17 years ago when the bloody coup took place… They shouted out over the mosque loudspeakers: ‘Kill them! Kill them and capture their wives!’ This is ISIS-ism.”
[Al-Arabiya TV (Saudi Arabia) website, June 17, 2024]
- Hamas hasn’t served any national goals since the coup in 2007, but wasted tens of billions of dollars instead of “advancing the Palestinian people”
“Hamas does not connect the end of the war to any national goal; we have not heard it even once connect the war to the issue of the Palestinian state… All that Hamas is asking is that the situation return to being as it was on Oct. 6, [2023,] in other words, to preserve its rule and the rift… Hamas must reexamine its path of rift because this path has inflicted heavy costs on the Palestinian people. All the battles that it has waged since it grabbed power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 (see note below -Ed.) have cost the Palestinian people more than 60,000 Martyrs and more than a quarter-million wounded, including tens of thousands who have become people with special needs. This is in addition to the tens of billions [of dollars], with which it would have been possible to advance the Palestinian people in the various sectors. The problem is that all Hamas asks for is that Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip, which was already liberated.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 12, 2024]
Hamas war on Israel October 2023
2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip
The following are longer excerpts of statements cited above and additional ones:
Excerpt of a column by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “To which reality will the Gaza Strip residents awake the moment the war ends?”
“Just as Israel bears responsibility for all the destruction and bloodshed (sic., refers to the 2023 Gaza war initiated by Hamas; see note below), so too Hamas – if it will not advance ending the [Fatah-Hamas] rift – will be a partner in the responsibility…
Today, after [US President Joe] Biden’s [ceasefire] initiative has become a [UN] Security Council resolution with such great support, it will not help that Hamas will bear responsibility for thwarting the initiative. The issue does not only concern it, as the entire Palestinian cause is in danger, and the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and even the West Bank will pay the price of this refusal. After all, we remember what happened after [former US President Bill] Clinton falsely laid the responsibility for the failure of the 2000 Camp David [Summit] on late [PA Chairman and PA] President Yasser Arafat, and what the price was that the Palestinian people paid. This was even though late President Yasser Arafat was involved in a peace process – all the more so Hamas, which the US defines as a ‘terror’ organization…
All the sides that are truly interested in the good of the Palestinian people return and say that Hamas can join the PLO and achieve what it wants through the umbrella of national unity, so why all this delay and foot-dragging?It is strange to hear those on the payroll [of foreign countries] in our political layer saying that ‘Hamas is managing the negotiations wisely and intelligently.’ It may be that they see nothing but saving Hamas’ head, but apparently the suffering of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people in general is not part of their considerations, and not even ending the rift, which has caused all these disasters.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 15, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The double theft of the Palestinian state!”
“The heads of Hamas have begun committing ‘the theft of the Palestinian state’… by turning the ‘excuse’ known as ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood’ (i.e., Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel; see note below) – which Hamas gave religious Zionism in order to implement the plans of annihilation and re-occupation – into a disaster harming the Palestinian people’s personal and collective consciousness, and causing it to lose the memory of more than 50 years of national struggle on the ground and in the international forums, more than 50 years packed with Palestinian popular revolutions, whose headline was the modern Palestinian revolution in 1965 (refers to “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel; see note below -Ed.). They claim that the talk in the world about the Palestinian state began after Oct. 7, [2023]! Thus, they have begun the theft of the state, which the Palestinian National Liberation Movement [– ‘Fatah’] established on the geopolitical world map and anchored in international law. This is after dozens of years in which they denied the Palestinian national enterprise, viewed the struggle to establish a Palestinian state in the June 4, [1967] borders whose capital is East Jerusalem as ‘treason,’ and did not speak about Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea as a homeland, but rather as an ‘Islamic waqf (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law; see note below)’! …
They are attempting to steal a diplomatic, legal, and political national struggle on all the world’s continents and in the international forums, which began even before they were established and received a ‘license’ from the Israeli Security Agency. They know well that the voting of 143 states at the UN General Assembly in favor of full membership for Palestine at the assembly, and the recognition by Ireland, Spain, and Norway of the State of Palestine were a necessary result of a political and legal struggle, [which began] ever since the speech of fighting self-sacrificing fighter [former PLO Chairman and PA President] Yasser Arafat from the UN podium in 1974 (see note below -Ed.).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, May 26, 2024]
The mention of PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat’s UN speech in 1974 refers to a speech he gave before the UN General Assembly on Nov. 13, 1974, in which he threatened: “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”
Excerpt of a column by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “When someone tells you ‘This is not the time’!”
“In this article I’ll speak about the people who, if someone… asks the questions that must be asked, they jump up and say: ‘This is not the time,’ in other words, ‘Shut up, you can’t ask and wonder,’ on the excuse that we are still in a ‘battle’ (i.e., the 2023 Gaza war; see note below).
The problem is that people like these existed in all periods. There were people like these when the 1936-1939 rebellion failed (i.e., the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt, at least 400 Jews murdered), and we started to fight one another while our society and its economic resources were destroyed. This was while the Jewish Yishuv (the Zionist project’s community) [parentheses in source] (i.e., pre-state Israel) was at the height of its growth, and completed [building] its institutions, its economy, and even the seed of its army – and we were surprised when the [1937] Peel Commission divided the land into two states.
People like these were in abundance from the end of World War II in the spring of 1945 until the completion of the Nakba in 1948-1949 (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel). They banned raising any voice asking and wondering why we reached the situation we reached? Why did we receive or reject the 1947 [UN] partition resolution (see note below -Ed.)?
This situation accompanied us in all stations and at all stages. Every time the same mistakes would recur, and facing this it was forbidden to ask or wonder, to the point that correct thinking and critical thinking became taboo. It may be that this is the situation that our enemy wants to see us in…
During the current war – which we must define as a Nakba according to any criterion, and which perhaps will lead to the elimination of the Palestinian cause altogether – when we wonder how we again reached the situation of Nakba, and how what happened happened, and what are the direct and indirect causes of this, and whether the Oct. 7 [2023] attack (i.e., Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel) was necessary at its timing, and whether those who carried it out anticipated the disastrous results, or perhaps they are certain that their mistakes will be buried, as has been customary with all our mistakes, and that we would continue to blame the international ‘conspiracy,’ …the same nihilistic mind pops up… and tells you: ‘This is not the time.’ …
Why is it forbidden for us to wonder, when the one who caused the disaster (i.e., Hamas) and gave the enemy an excuse to realize its barbarism to the end is still conveying that he is acting correctly, and that the truth is in his hands, and in his hands only? …
When we were silent about what Hamas did in 2007 (i.e., the 2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip; see note below)… and when we were silent about all the mistakes that were committed in the second Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005, more than 1,100 Israelis murdered), and even before that, up to the 1948 Nakba, which most of us members of the Palestinian people do not know that we are responsible for a large portion of the causes for its occurrence in this catastrophic fashion, I say: Yes, wondering and a critical spirit are possible at all times, and it is a mistake to postpone this.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 4, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for official PA daily and former advisor to former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on national affairs
Headline: “Khamenei’s sin against the Palestinians”
“The Palestinian people’s modern revolution has learned from the experience of peoples who have fought, and at the same time has enriched the peoples’ experience with its many achievements in the last six decades…
It has not only fought against the bastard State of Israel, but also against the imperialist West led by the US. In addition to this, the Israeli enemy is not like other forms of colonialism;it is more complicated than all the old and new types of colonialism, because it has waved a destructive tool of expulsion and ethnic cleansing of an entire people from its homeland, and the reactionary Zionist movement has sounded its main slogan to achieve its colonialist goals – ‘a land without a people for a people without a land.’ …
The Palestinian people, elites, and political forces have not submitted to the will of the imperialist West, nor to the barbarity of the Israeli state – the satanic plant on the historical land of Palestine. [The people] continued the struggle and ignited the modern revolution at the start of 1965 (refers to “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel -Ed.), which is continuing until now with means and forms of struggle that develop according to the conditions, the geopolitical factors, and the dramatic changes in them, in order to defend the people, its interests, and its political and legal rights in its homeland…
The leadership of this lauded people – which is the PLO, the sole legitimate representative throughout the recent decades – has made efforts and is still making efforts to nurture positive ties as extensive as possible with all the world’s states to gain their support in the struggle for liberation, but it has rejected and continues to reject interference in internal affairs…
Khamenei’s sin against the Palestinian people is unforgivable, because it is big and severe and in no way serves the interests and goals of the Palestinian people and leadership, as he is interested in a continuation of the Israeli and American war of annihilation.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 5, 2024]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “The lie syndrome!”
“Hamas has been lying and acting hypocritically until now, and this is still its status with its demands, its statements, its slogans, and its appearances in the various media outlets. The latest appearance was two days ago [June 2, 2024] on the screen of [Saudi] MBC Masr TV, when Egyptian journalist Amr Adeeb hosted Hamas Movement Political Bureau member and member of the current negotiations committee with Israel Ghazi Hamad, who lied about everything…
Hamad forgets, or actually pretends to forget, that 17 years of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip… have worsened the scarcity and poverty in the wounded Gaza Strip, and strengthened a [Fatah-Hamas] rift that the Israeli occupation provided everything needed for its continuation. In order to preserve the rift, [the occupation] enabled the monetary funding to pass through its security institutions, at a time when the smuggling continued of rockets of the regional interests – and more precisely Iranian [interests] – into the wounded Gaza Strip. These are [the rockets] that [Hamas leader Yahya] Al-Sinwar always threatened that they would crush Tel Aviv and erase it, but in six destructive wars that Israel waged against the Gaza Strip, Tel Aviv was not crushed even once, other than the crushing of [rocket] sirens. Not even one building was destroyed!
As for ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood’ (Hamas' name for its terror war against Israel; see note below -Ed.), it has become clear that the decision to carry it out was Iranian, after Iranian [Supreme] Leader [Ayatollah] Khamenei spoke about it – which the Israeli occupation used as an excuse to launch the war for the total destruction of the Palestinian cause.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 4, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The alternative Israeli rule in the Gaza Strip – an experience of self-destruction for the Palestinian people”
“It has become clear – and almost certain – that the colonialist and racist Zionist occupation system (i.e., Israel) is taking action to complete the bloody genocide (sic., refers to the 2023 Gaza war; see note below) through familial and tribal conflicts between the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. The announcement by the [Israeli] ‘war cabinet’ of a plan to establish an alternative rule in the Gaza Strip, which will rely on parties in the [Palestinian] society that oppose the Hamas rule – a rule that is essentially illegal and based on a coup (i.e., the 2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip; see note below) – is nothing but an attempt to cause the Palestinian people’s body to continue to bleed the day after the Israeli war machine will stop carrying out this mission. The Israeli security system’s generals know well that the Hamas leaders – who attribute no importance to the lives of the tens of thousands of [Palestinian] Martyrs of whom 15,000 are children (sic., refers to debunked Hamas figures, in early May the UN corrected its figures on child war fatalities from 14,500 to 7,797), to approximately 100,000 wounded, and to the destruction of more than 50% of the buildings in the Gaza Strip – will carry out plans of assassination of [Palestinian] individuals and massive massacres against all those who will cooperate with them.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 9, 2024]
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
“For 100 days and a bit more, Israeli fighter jets are doing as they please in the airspace of the Gaza Strip and on its ground. After all, there is no means of air defense in the Gaza Strip, which these jets have turned into rubble! At a time when the residents of the Gaza Strip are the first to call for the end of the war, the senior advisor of the so-called [Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)] Quds Force announces that ‘The Palestinians will receive antiaircraft measures to fight Israel’! Therefore, the senior officials of Tehran and its policy do not appear as anything but those calling to continue the war and even expand it, as long as the civilian Martyr victims are not its own citizens…
And not only that – in this statement Tehran exposes its true face as one of the sides that is igniting a fire in this war. What proves this is the words of a senior official in the so-called Iranian ‘[Islamic] Revolutionary Guard [Corps],’ according to which ‘The planners of “the Al-Aqsa Flood” (Hamas' name for its terror war against Israel; see note below -Ed.) and those who carried it out are graduates of the school of [former IRGC Quds Force Commander] Qasem Suleimani’! …
Indeed, this is blatant interference in Palestinian national security affairs and great disregard for the lives of the residents in the slaughtered Gaza Strip. Israeli war Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu does not cease to declare that he will continue this war, and the Iranian antiaircraft measures – even if they do not arrive in the Gaza Strip, and we do not think that they will arrive – will be added by Netanyahu to the list of his excuses to continue the war.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 8, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The Khamenei flood and the crazy people of the current period!”
“[Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah] Khamenei knows that the Palestinian people has determined its fate and future on its homeland of Palestine, with a desire free of prophecies and astrological readings of the occult! This is based on a firm belief in the natural historical right, the inevitable victory, and shattering the base of the international Zionist colonialist project (the occupation and settler colonialism system, Israel) [parentheses in source]. Those who speak today about ‘prophecies’ regarding Palestine do not hide thatTehran supported Hamas so that it would serve as its fist of steel and fire to carry out the plot to create an alternative to the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, …and that [Hamas’] adherents gave religious Zionism excuses to flood the Gaza Strip with ‘the Blood and Destruction Flood’ (refers to ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood,’ Hamas' name for its terror war against Israel; see note below -Ed.), which in Khamenei’s opinion ‘took place at the right time.’ It indeed achieved for Israel and its regime a joint goal, and that is destroying the chance for establishing a Palestinian state…
Khamenei, like the Hamas leaders, does not care about the awful losses of the Palestinian people in life and property since Oct. 7, [2023] (i.e., Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel), which currently must be viewed as ‘the Iran Flood’!After all, this is a flood of fraud regarding the reality in Palestine in general and the Gaza Strip in particular, as the annihilation machine is cutting up the bodies of children and extracting fetuses from their mothers’ wombs, and our children are dying of hunger and a lack of food and medicine. Khamenei is hiding the bloody attack of annihilation, the war crimes of the Zionist occupation system (i.e., Israel), and the crimes against humanity, by presenting them as ‘a defeat and a decisive blow to Israel.’ Thus, he is refuting the Palestinian narrative, and supporting the claim of the religious Zionist government in Israel as if it is the one that is being attacked.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 4, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The Iranian Revolutionary Guards [Corps] (IRGC) bomb Hamas!”
The following is a response to an IRGC spokesman saying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 invasion and massacre was a response to the assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani; see note below -Ed.
“So that we will understand the significance, the consequences, and the goals of the Persian statement precisely at this time, we must bring the words of Head of the Political Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood Branch in Palestine that is called ‘Hamas’ Khaled Mashaal, who said more than 20 years ago: ‘Hamas is the legal son of the Iranian Islamic revolution.’ Our portion was murder threats from Hamas because we criticized its statements, which proved the correctness of our outlook, according to which Hamas, which is counted among the Muslim Brotherhood, feels complete loathing towards Palestinian nationalism, Arabness, and humanness. It entered as a strong and crucial partner into the plot to negate the national and independent decision-making from the Palestinian people…
If ‘the Iranian operator’ was not certain of the loyalty of its salaried employee, Hamas, the spokesman of the acting ruling system of Iran, which is known as ‘the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards [Corps],’ would not have said that ‘the Al-Aqsa Flood operation (Hamas' name for its terror war against Israel -Ed.) was one of the operations of revenge for the assassination of Qasem Suleimani.’ …With this cutting statement the perfect and precise coordination between the [Iranian] Ayatollah regime and the religious Zionist system and its current head [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu was revealed,as the goal of them both is clear and open: To empty the Palestinian national liberation movement of its ideology, values, principles, and goals, and to turn it into a mere pawn in the hands of forces and states! …
The regime in Tehran has put an end to the doubts and shown that the heads of Hamas – who played tricks and said that Hamas is a national movement – are lying.But it also gave the occupation system (i.e., Israel) an additional excuse to expand the bloody attack of annihilation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, as its military wing took responsibility for the Oct. 7 [2023] operation in the Gaza Strip Envelope settlements (sic., refers to Hamas’ invasion and massacre in towns in sovereign Israel), and gave Benjamin Netanyahu great credit, due to his claim that Hamas is fighting for the Iranian regime…
We think that Hamas will not be cleared of blame, even if all its civilian and military leaders will rush to deny the words of the IRGC spokesman…
They gave the Zionist colonialist and terrorist occupation system excuses to launch a bloody attack of annihilation, which has no precedent in the new era and anywhere in the world, to the point that a worse Nakba than the 1948 Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) has befallen our people…
This sinking in the swamp of subordination to foreigners will constitute a strong incentive for the Palestinian people to demand an accounting from Hamas in every refugee camp, town, village, and city in the homeland and the diaspora, and in every family that lost its loved ones, until these people will understand that the Palestinian blood is only given for the homeland, and that spilling it in vain for foreigners and foreign agendas is ‘the greatest plot.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 2023]
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
“The Hamas leaders are incapable of freeing themselves from the path of fraud, which is rooted in the writings and outlooksof the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Therefore, we see that they are taking the opposite action from the positions that they themselves stated and behaving fickly to ensure tranquility for their relatives and associates. This is at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Martyrs and wounded people from among the Palestinian people, and at the expense of the awful and unprecedented destruction of the resources, livelihood, and property of millions of civilians, and also of institutions of the State of Palestine. The Hamas leaders view the victims of their hopeless policy as a project of ‘human sacrifices’ permitted for slaughter when and how they want. Not only that, they also dedicate the blood of these Palestinian human sacrifices – which is more precious than all the treasures of the world – to their Persian [Iranian] masters, in order to ensure monetary liquidity.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 22, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “Four [Israeli] hostages as opposed to 274 killed Palestinians”
“It is impossible to justify Israel’s crime at the Nuseirat refugee camp (sic., refers to Operation Arnon in which Israeli forces rescued 4 Israeli hostages; see note below). What happened proves once again that the racist ideology is what completely rules the mentality and decisions of the political echelon in Israel, and especially in the extremist right-wing that is currently in power.
It is known that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Israel in general were in need of a ‘Superman’ operation to restore their reputation as a first-rate [military] intelligence state, [and to prove] that Oct. 7, [2023] (i.e., Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel) was an unusual incident. As for Netanyahu, the operation is important for him to justify the extension of the war and the extension of his rule. As for the international responses, they indeed were troubling, in the sense that the US and a number of European states only saw Israel’s success in rescuing its hostages, but did not see the awful massacre that inflicted 274 Palestinian Martyrs and more than 700 wounded (sic., refers to Hamas figures, Israel reported less than 100 terrorists and civilians died in the gun battle initiated by terrorists), in addition to the destruction of entire neighborhoods in the refugee camp.
But why should we be surprised? Has this not been our situation for more than 100 years? After all, the colonialist Zionist project ignores our existence to rebuild ancient Israel. The question is, why should we let the Gaza Strip be destroyed and let its residents be annihilated? Why should we let it turn into an uninhabitable area? Is it necessary that all this will happen, at a time when Hamas is continuing to act deceptively on everything concerning the [prisoner] exchange deal? And what is the goal? After the [UN] Security Council resolution (refers to resolution calling to implement American ceasefire proposal -Ed.), Hamas can now stop deceiving and take care of the Palestinian people’s interests, and not its [own] interests. It can stop insisting on continuing the [Fatah-Hamas] rift. If the excuse is emptying the prisons, this is a demand whose price is more killing and destruction, especially because Hamas does not connect the end of the war to any national goal; we have not heard it even once connect the war to the issue of the Palestinian state, or connect the end of the war to the end of the Israeli violations in the West Bank, or even at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which the ‘[Al-Aqsa] Flood Battle’ (Hamas' name for its terror war against Israel -Ed.) bore its name. All that Hamas is asking is that the situation return to being as it was on Oct. 6, [2023,] in other words, to preserve its rule and the rift.
The shortest path is that Hamas put its hand in the hand of the legal Palestinian leadership of the Palestinian people and join the PLO. Only this path can keep Hamas in the arena in the current conditions. Hamas must reexamine its path of rift, because this path has inflicted heavy costs on the Palestinian people.All the battles that it has waged since it grabbed power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 (see note below -Ed.) have cost the Palestinian people more than 60,000 Martyrs and more than a quarter-million wounded, including tens of thousands who have become people with special needs. This is in addition to the tens of billions [of dollars], with which it would have been possible to advance the Palestinian people in the various sectors.The problem is that all Hamas asks for is that Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip, which was already liberated.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 12, 2024]
Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The sources of authority of Hamas’ hostile discourse towards the Palestinian national movement”
One of the Hamas leaders, Musa Abu Marzouq, does not stop taking hallucinogens before every meeting with a media outlet…
Musa Abu Marzouq knows that the hell that his organization Hamas brought on the Palestinian people is more difficult and terrible than the first Nakba of 1948 (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), yethe accuses the PA of treason and describes it as ‘protecting the security of Israel.’ This is because he thinks he can blind the Palestinian people to the fact that his organization [Hamas] is responsible for providing the excuses, which the occupation system (i.e., Israel) waited for in order to launch the bloody campaign of annihilation against our people, whose peak is in the Gaza Strip (refers to the 2023 Gaza war; see note below -Ed.). We do not forget that a joint goal of the two of them – Hamas and Israel – is to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state according to the fundamentals and goals of the [Palestinian] National Liberation Movement [- ‘Fatah’] and the PLO, the sole legitimate representative. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are a vertebra in the backbone [of Israel]…The heads of [Israel’s] intelligence services said that Hamas is a strategic interest of Israel, and so did [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu who emphasized that the fact that he approved strengthening Hamas in the Gaza Strip and transferring suitcases of money [from Qatar] to its leaders in the Gaza Strip was meant to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. This was while he stole the [Palestinian] tax money, and while his government stole millions that the PA is paying to the families of the Martyrs and to the prisoners (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below -Ed.).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 26, 2024]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice.