Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack for the first time on Tuesday, while reiterating his call for the terror group to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
“What Hamas did in October 2023 in killing and taking civilians hostage is unacceptable and condemnable and Hamas must immediately release all hostages,” Abbas wrote in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who this month will co-chair a UN conference aimed at advancing a two-state solution.
While Abbas has long rejected violence as a means for advancing Palestinian self-determination, he has refrained from specifically publicly condemning Hamas’s actions on October 7, with at least one of his aides arguing that he wouldn’t do so while Israel’s wide-scale offensive in Gaza was ongoing.
But Abbas is also looking to gain support from the international community so that the PA can replace Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza.
In recent months, he has repeatedly condemned Hamas, while also instituting a series of reforms, including one that would end the PA’s controversial policy of rewarding the families of Palestinian security prisoners and slain terrorists who had carried out attacks against Israelis.
Abbas’s letter comes a week before the UN’s two-state solution conference, which Ramallah is hoping will be used as a platform for France and other countries to recognize a Palestinian state.
Abbas’s comments could make it easier for Western countries to further boost the PA, which Israel has repeatedly called out for failing to unequivocally condemn the October 7 onslaught. Jerusalem did not comment on Abbas’s Tuesday letter, though it has spoken out adamantly against next week’s UN conference and even blocked the recent entry of a Saudi-led delegation of Arab foreign ministers to Ramallah on the grounds that they were planning to advance a two-state solution — a framework that Israel claims would pose a security threat.
Abbas’s letter also outlined the main steps that he thinks must be taken to end the war in Gaza and achieve peace in the Middle East.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces,” he wrote.
He said he was “ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilization/protection mission with a (UN) Security Council mandate.”
“We are ready to conclude within a clear and binding timeline, and with international support, supervision and guarantees, a peace agreement that ends the Israeli occupation and resolves all outstanding and final status issues,” Abbas wrote.
In his letter, Abbas reaffirmed his commitment to reform the Palestinian Authority and confirmed his intention to hold presidential and general elections “within a year” under international auspices.
“The Palestinian State should be the sole provider of security on its territory, but has no intention to be a militarized State.”
The Palestinian Authority has been under pressure from Arab and Western states to undergo significant reform as they push for the body to replace Hamas as Gaza’s governing authority.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused, however, to entertain the option of allowing the PA to return to governing Gaza. This has stopped nearly half a dozen Arab countries from committing to participating in the postwar management of the Strip, as they have conditioned their support on the establishment of a political horizon for an eventual two-state solution.
The Elysee Palace welcomed the letter’s “concrete and unprecedented commitments, demonstrating a real willingness to move towards the implementation of the two-state solution.”
Macron has said he is “determined” to recognize a Palestinian state, but also set out several conditions, including the “demilitarization” of Hamas.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri hit back at Abbas, asserting to Reuters that the PA president has no legitimacy to speak about the “weapons of the resistance.”
AFP contributed to this report.