Palestinians murder Israelis. The Palestinian Authority blames Israel.
After the Hamas-led atrocities of October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Authority blamed Israel. After two Palestinian terrorists shot and killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday, Abbas' senior advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash delivered the same message: Israel is responsible.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "The blame and responsibility (i.e., for Palestinian terror attack) first and foremost fall on Israel because Israel is the one who sets the conditions and atmosphere for such events, which are themselves, honestly, just Palestinian responses."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Oct. 24, 2026]
In fact, whenever Palestinians commit terror attacks, the PA presents Israel as the aggressor pursuing a preexisting plan:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "Perhaps these events (i.e., terror attack, 2 murdered) played into the hands of the extremists in Israel, and particularly Israeli Prime Minister [Netanyahu], who waited for such an event to unleash his hatred,illusions, and aggressive plans against the Palestinian people and to free himself from any international or legal obligation whatsoever towards the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Oct. 23, 2026]
This is the PA's method of erasing Palestinian accountability. When Palestinians attack, Israel supposedly caused it. When Israel responds, its response supposedly proves that it wanted the attack all along.
It is the same as the PA's embrace of the October 7 atrocities, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Habbash asserted in August 2025 that Israel had wanted October 7 and possibly worked towards it in order to advance plans against the Palestinians. In April 2025, he suggested that Netanyahu's government might have maneuvered Hamas into attacking to manufacture an excuse for its alleged plans in Gaza. That October, he pointed to Netanyahu's political survival and renewed Israeli unity as grounds for questioning who was behind the attack.
Another senior Palestinian leader, PA-ruling-party Fatah's Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, had issued a similar libel:
Jibril Rajoub: "The Israeli government is the only one responsible for what's going on, for the suffering, whether for the Palestinians or some Israeli civilians who were killed on Oct. 7."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Aug. 2, 2025]
The PA's message is consistent and provides a standing excuse for terror from across the Palestinian spectrum.