According to a recent report in MEMRI, voices from across the Palestinian Authority have condemned Hamas for its executions of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report in MEMRI, “Following the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli forces in accordance with the agreement between Israel and Hamas, this organization began carrying out summary mass executions of individuals it accuses of collaborating with Israel, claiming that it is authorized and in fact obligated to do so. These executions sparked harsh condemnations from the Palestinian Authority (PA), which considers itself the legitimate and lawful governing authority in the Gaza Strip.”
MEMRI continued, “President Mahmoud Abbas lambasted Hamas for carrying out executions “outside the framework of the law and without any fair trial.” He described this as “a crime and a blatant violation of human rights, as well as a severe blow to the principle of the rule of law,” and stated that this policy “demonstrates the [Hamas] movement’s insistence on imposing its rule through force and terror.””
According to MEMRI, “The media affiliated with the PA and Fatah published articles in a similar vein, which accused Hamas of acting like ISIS and described the executions as crimes against the people of Gaza. These executions, the articles said, are a continuation of the crimes committed by Hamas since its 2007 military coup against the PA, and are part of Hamas’s efforts to maintain its illegitimate rule over Gaza while violating the human rights of its residents and undermining the PA’s efforts to establish a Palestinian state.”
The October 16 editorial of the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida likened Hamas’s executions to those carried out by ISIS, and accused Hamas of subverting the PA’s efforts to establish a Palestinian state. It said: “…Hamas’s militias have carried out a new massacre with their ISIS-style executions, in blatant and open violation of human rights and in a direct assault on the principle of the rule of law. The victims are dozens of civilians from the wounded [Gaza] Strip…
“With these criminal actions, Hamas is in fact disrupting the reconstruction of [the Gaza Strip], striking a blow to the very heart of the supreme national interests and threatening the unity of the Palestinian people and its social, moral, national and ethical fabric. With these actions, Hamas is deceiving itself into thinking that terror is governance, so that the rule of law does not prevail in the Gaza Strip. Worst of all in this context is that, with this militia-style policy and behavior, [Hamas] conspires against the project of [establishing] a state: the State of Palestine, which will not come into being without the Gaza Strip…”
In an October 15 article on Sada News, former PA culture minister Ibrahim Abrash slammed Hamas for carrying out executions without trial, and argued that these acts stem from its fear of a popular uprising against it in Gaza. Instead of denying reality and continuing to cling to power, he said, Hamas should disarm and cede control of Gaza to the PA.
He wrote: “…Disarming Hamas, [a move] that will ensure the safety of the [Gazan] public, which is more important than Israel’s security, requires vision and a national [Palestinian], Arab and international strategic plan for dealing with more than 100,000 [Hamas] members, fighters and civil servants…”
“The scene we witnessed yesterday, which repeated itself today, of Hamas gunmen executing dozens of civilians without trial on charges of collaboration with the enemy, while also recruiting dozens of [Hamas] supporters to glorify and praise these acts, is a grave indication of the horrors awaiting Gaza, which are no less dangerous than the war itself…
“We can understand the fear, the panic and the extent of Hamas’s anxiety that the Palestinians of Gaza might rise up against it. But Hamas has had more than one opportunity to heed the initiatives of the Palestinian leadership and the PA, and of Arab and Islamic states, which urged it to abandon its arrogance and obstinacy and agree to cede power and hand the entire issue of negotiation [with Israel] over to these parties – especially to the PA and Egypt. [Instead,] Hamas persisted [in its ways and chose] to hand over the reins to Qatar, which used the situation to prolong the war… In addition, mercenaries on the TV channels, especially on Al Jazeera, deluded Hamas into believing that it could defeat the enemy and that Israel was on the verge of collapse…”
In an October 14 article on Maan News, Fatah activist Bakr Abu Bakr compared Hamas’s executions to the acts it committed during its military coup against the PA in 2007. Abu Bakr wrote: “The militias of the Hamas faction have risen up against the people of Gaza, [displaying] the exact same mentality as criminal gangs. They are arresting people, shooting them in the legs, burning homes and holding executions in a violent, terrifying and abhorrent [manner], which is reminiscent of what this faction did when it seized the Gaza Strip from the PA… during the bloody massacres of 2007. Despite its destructive adventure [on October 7, 2023] and its global isolation, [and out of] its indifference to the public and its inability to acknowledge failure or engage in self-criticism, Hamas, with strange arrogance, has resumed its crimes against the Palestinian people under the pretext of [punishing] theft, defiance of Hamas’s path or collaboration with the Israelis…”
Photo from CBS Evening News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFyxnkj_QU
