Photo courtesy of WAFA news agency.
"Hamas must end its control over the Gaza Strip, hand over all its affairs to the Palestinian National Authority, surrender its weapons, and transform into a political party," President Abbas said during a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.
He also urged Hamas to release the Israeli captives to deprive Israel of its pretexts for continuing the war on Gaza.
"Since its coup against Palestinian national legitimacy in 2007, Hamas has caused immense harm to the Palestinian cause. It, whether intentionally or not, has provided Israel with dangerous and free justifications to carry out the occupation's conspiracies and crimes in Gaza, the most prominent being holding captives," Abbas said.
"Our people are paying the price, not Israel. Just hand them over," said the Palestinian president, in referencing 59 Israeli captives still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Abbas outlined four key priorities that the Palestinian Authority is working to achieve: ending the genocide in Gaza; lifting the blockade on the strip; preventing the displacement of its residents; and ending the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine and securing international recognition of this state under UN resolutions and the international law.
The meetings of the 32nd session of the Palestinian Central Council are taking place in Ramallah, amid the absence of key factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian National Initiative, both of which have announced their boycott of the sessions.
Deep political and ideological divisions have marred relations between Abbas' Fatah and Hamas for over three decades.
President Abbas and the PA have repeatedly accused Hamas of "undermining Palestinian unity."
On the other hand, Hamas, which operates as a political organisation with a military wing, has accused the PA of "collaborating with Israel" and "cracking down on dissent in the West Bank."
Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip after a brief armed confrontation with the PA security forces in June 2007 in a struggle for power after the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections.
The Palestinian Authority, which operates out of Ramallah, continued to rule over parts of the occupied West Bank per the 1993 Oslo agreement with Israel.
For its part, Hamas senior official Bassem Naim described Abbas’s remarks and the PA meeting as “an illegitimate seizure of the Palestinian people’s representation.”
Naim accused Abbas of using “offensive language” to describe “a large and integral part of his own people,” referring to Hamas supporters.
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