Abbas, Israel trade barbs over cease-fire collapse, PA ties with Hamas

Abbas said that Friday’s ceasefire “collapsed within two hours as a result of the continued Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.”

By HERB KEINON, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Abbas speaks during meeting with UN envoy (photo credit: REUTERS)
Abbas speaks during meeting with UN envoy
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas traded barbs on Sunday, with Abbas blaming Israel for the collapse of Friday’s cease-fire, and Israel slamming Abbas for his unity pact with Hamas.
Contrary to what the US determined, Abbas said Sunday that Friday’s ceasefire “collapsed within two hours as a result of the continued Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.”
The US- and UN-brokered cease-fire went into effect at 8 a.m. Friday morning. An hour later, Hamas attacked IDF soldiers in Rafah, killing three, including Lt. Hadar Goldin.
Abbas called on the international community to intervene immediately to commit Israel to halt its attacks on the Gaza Strip and accept the Egyptian cease-fire initiative, which was announced a few weeks ago. Israel accepted that cease-fire proposal, while Hamas rejected it.
“Israel is continuing its aggression, crimes and war on our Palestinian people,” Abbas said. “In the last 27 days, Israel has killed and wounded 17 Palestinians every hour. It was also killing a Palestinian child every three hours.”
Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, in an interview on NBC, slammed the Palestinian Authority for being in alliance with “a genocidal terror organization.”
“I hope that after this round of fighting is over, that President Abbas will abandon the pact that he made with Hamas and go back to peace negotiations with Israel,” he said.
“You have to fight terror, you can’t embrace terrorists, this is unfortunately what President Abbas has done,” Dermer said.
“Take the case of Iraq,” he added.
“Do you think the solution in Iraq is to have the Iraqi government just include ISIS [now the Islamic State] as a member of a government? That is what the Palestinian government did two months ago. We were very opposed to that when the international community said that is a good thing for peace. That is a bad thing for peace. The road to peace goes over Hamas, it does not include Hamas.”