As Gaza burns, Abbas's rebuke of Hamas is a deathblow for Palestinian unity

In a fiery speech last Wednesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at Hamas, calling them "sons of dogs" and demanding that they release the remaining Israeli captives, disarm, and hand over control of Gaza to the PA.

“Hamas has given the criminal occupation [Israel] excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages,” Mahmoud Abbas,  also known as Abu Mazen, said during a leadership conference in Ramallah.

The remarks were the strongest public criticism of the group that the president had delivered since the war began 18 months ago, drawing sharp condemnation from Palestinian factions who said Abbas’ statements “encouraged rhetoric that deepens division and fuels hatred among the people”.

Opponents have lambasted the Palestinian president for appearing to side with Israeli policies instead of supporting his own people, especially as Gaza continues to endure Israel’s military aggression and remains under siege.

The Palestinian Resistance Alliance strongly rebuffed his observations, stating that Abbas's attack on Hamas is a “desperate attempt to weaken the unified national position” in the interests of Israel's occupation.

“It’s an attempt to try to make political capital out of the Israeli genocide,” Mouin Rabbani, a political analyst and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, told The New Arab. “The real danger is that Fatah, not his rivals, will be tarnished by his comments.”

Inès Abdel Razek, co-director of the Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD), told TNA that it was “outrageous” to blame Israel’s genocide on the Palestinian people and political factions.

She contended that the PA leader and his inner circle are set on clinging to power and maintaining the “regime of the colonisers” rather than dismantling it.

The advocacy director also remarked that claims suggesting Gaza’s situation would improve if Hamas frees the captives and disarms "play into Israel’s ongoing aggression". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected multiple truce deals agreed upon by Hamas since October 2023, violated the ceasefire, and then collapsed it.

The Israeli premier has repeatedly asserted that Tel Aviv will only accept a deal that will allow it to resume hostilities until its war objectives are achieved. The PM recently stated it had “no choice” but to continue fighting in Gaza, and that the war would not end until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are freed.

Israel has also vowed to escalate its attacks across the coastal strip and indefinitely occupy large "security zones" within the small territory. To add to Palestinian suffering, for nearly two months, Israel has fully blocked all aid supplies from entering Gaza, with local NGOs declaring that the besieged territory has entered a state of famine.

In comments to the media, Mustafa Barghouti, who leads the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), condemned the PA leader’s tirade: “They should not have been said by the president of the PLO, and definitely this will not create anything except more divisions and more anger within the Palestinian people."

US-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud told TNA that the real issue goes well beyond the president’s “profane” language and “irrational” discourse.

“Abbas’s branch of Fatah, which fully controls the PLO, PA, and all official Palestinian representation, is both politically bankrupt and officially adopting Israel’s narrative on Gaza, the resistance, and the war," he said.

Speaking before the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) Central Council, Abbas pushed for a post-war governance role in the Gaza Strip after being largely sidelined by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Key Palestinian factions boycotted the meeting due to Fatah’s monopoly over Palestinian decision-making and its perceived lack of legitimacy.

“The meeting was a farce, it demonstrates once again the urgency for Palestinians to take the lead in reviving their national institutions," Rabbani commented.

Abbas’s comments come as Egyptian and Qatari mediators carry on their as yet unsuccessful efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and the Gaza-based group, more than a month since Israel resumed bombing the war-devastated enclave.

Just days before the heated tirade, Hamas rejected Israel's latest proposal, which included a demand for the group to disarm in return for a six-week truce. The Islamist movement has maintained that it would free all captives in exchange for a permanent end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal.

The Abbas-led PA administers parts of the occupied West Bank and was ousted from Gaza in 2007 when Hamas seized control of the territory in bloody fighting a year after winning legislative elections.

Hamas and the Fatah-dominated PA have been deeply divided for nearly 20 years, preventing a unified Palestinian leadership. While the Palestinian Authority accuses Hamas of undermining unity, the armed resistance group condemns the Western-backed body for collaborating with Israel and suppressing dissent in the West Bank.

Since 2007, the two rival factions have signed several reconciliation agreements, none of which have been fully implemented. Arab states have been pressuring Abbas to reconcile his party with Hamas.

For Rabbani, the PA president has been the “primary obstacle” to every initiative aimed at ending the Hamas-Fatah schism. “There can be no reconciliation until Abbas leaves or is removed,” the Middle East analyst argued. “He has become a complete irrelevance to Palestinian politics, no one takes him seriously anymore”.

The PA leader and his top aides have undermined prior reconciliation efforts with Hamas, showing little real will to unify the Palestinian leadership against Israel’s occupation as Fatah fears losing its monopoly if Hamas and other factions are included in the PLO.

The PA, created by the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords and tasked to govern the West Bank and Gaza ahead of a future Palestinian state, has replaced the PLO as the de facto representative of Palestinians internationally.

It has lost credibility with the Palestinian public as the Israeli occupation intensified, settlement expansion continued, and its security coordination with Tel Aviv persisted. Many Palestinians see it as failing to protect them from Israeli forces and settlers while cracking down on activists and opponents at home.

Abbas has ruled without elections since 2007, and is largely perceived as inept, corrupt, and out of touch. Critics accuse him of blocking attempts to hold polls and say he heads a governing body that no longer represents the Palestinian people.

Baroud pointed out that while most Palestinians had little faith in their corrupt leadership, many still hoped the PA would undergo some internal change after 18 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“Fatah and its ageing leader continue to be committed to the same factional discourse, fixated on defeating Hamas, and completely oblivious to the Israeli genocide,” the editor of The Palestine Chronicle stated, contrasting this with the growing global support for Palestine fueled by Gaza’s suffering.

The Israeli military launched a devastating campaign to destroy Hamas in response to its 7 October attack. Over 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry. Rights groups and legal experts say Israel has committed acts of genocide during the war.

The Palestinian National Conference in February, held in Doha, highlighted the need for a unified national leadership, calling for the rebuilding of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people to address political fragmentation and outside pressures, especially amid the war. ​

"Mahmoud Abbas and his circle are more accountable to Israel, the US, and their allies than to their own people,” PIPD’s co-director said, noting how it has long failed to meet Palestinian demands for justice and freedom.

Discussing the PA leadership’s current strategy in Gaza, Abdel Razek said the authorities in Ramallah seek to align with US-Israeli plans while paying lip service to a two-state solution, imposing terms that further fragment the besieged territory and enable Israel to reoccupy it.

“This will make the PA manage the occupation in Gaza, instead of ending it, [just] as they’ve done in the West Bank," she said.

Alessandra Bajec is a freelance journalist currently based in Tunis

Follow her on Twitter: @AlessandraBajec