After Netanyahu said that "we will not relinquish security control of Gaza" and that the Palestinian Authority will not control Gaza the day after the war, PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh on Sunday spoke out against the Israeli leadership, accusing "Netanyahu of working to destroy the signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority." In an interview given to Arab media, al-Sheikh said that the PA would not accept partial solutions that did not include "ending the occupation from all the Palestinian territories."
Netanyahu: "The IDF will continue to control the Gaza Strip the day after" // Photo: GPO
"Netanyahu has announced the strategic goal of the destructive war against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, which is to destroy what is left of the agreements and crush them under the chains of Israeli tanks and fully reconquer the Palestinian territories," al-Sheikh told Al-Arabiya TV. "This is a dream that has occupied Netanyahu for many years. Now there is revenge alongside deepening the project of destroying any political horizon to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state along the '67 lines."
The senior PA official stressed that "our position is stable. The Palestinian Authority will not return to Gaza on an Israeli tank. The split between the West Bank and Gaza is Netanyahu's project to evade any political commitment that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. We say that the PLO represents all the Palestinians, and it has a clear political plan."
He also said that only a political solution could stop the current war in Gaza and attacked the international community for its "silence in the face of massacres of Gazans."
A tank operating in the Gaza Strip, photo: IDF Spokesperson
Al-Sheikh, who heads the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Civil Affairs and is responsible for managing relations with Israel, continued to strongly and personally attack the prime minister, saying that "the big loser from this war is Netanyahu. He is trying to prolong the war period under pretexts and in an attempt to achieve a false picture of victory in order to protect his failure and his political future."
When asked about the ties between the PA leadership and Hamas, al-Sheikh admitted that there were contacts with the terrorist organization. "In a time of blood, it is impossible to blame our brothers, our people are under slaughter. There were contacts with the brothers in Hamas before and after October 7. Our hearts are open to any dialogue that will bring unity to our people."
Mahmoud Abbas and Haniyeh in 2007, photo: AP
Yesterday, Netanyahu stressed at a joint press conference he held together with Defense Minister Galant and Gantz that "in Gaza there cannot be an authority that educates children to hate Israel and pays the families of murderers."
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