Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was targeted in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday while attending the inauguration of new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Times of Israel reported: “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, calling it a ‘cowardly act and dangerous development.’”
Theoretically, Abbas’s Fatah faction and Haniyeh’s Hamas organization are political rivals, but the Palestinian Authority has long supported and subsidized terror.
Abbas has yet to condemn the October 7 attack, though Fatah-controlled media outlets have criticized it on tactical grounds.
U.S. President Joe Biden has pushed for the Palestinian Authority to be placed in charge of Gaza after the current war ends. The Palestinian Authority ran Gaza from 1994 until 2007, when Hamas ousted the Fatah leadership in a bloody coup inside the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stringently opposed allowing the Palestinian Authority to return, and has likewise pushed back against Biden’s attempt to achieve a Palestinian state as one of the outcomes of the war.
In these positions, Netanyahu is strongly supported by the Israeli public — as well as the American public, 80% of whom support Israel against Hamas, according to the Harvard-Harris Poll, which has shown consistent results throughout the duration of the war.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “ ”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “ The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
