Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas on Wednesday to “swiftly” conclude an agreement to protect the Palestinian people from the “effects of a new catastrophe” after four months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement in Israel Turkey's Gaza Strip.
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“We call on the Hamas movement to quickly conclude the prisoners' agreement to save our Palestinian people from a new catastrophe no less dangerous than the 'Nakba' of 1948,” he said, using the term for the “Catastrophe” that the Palestinians experienced They are linked to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, after which 760,000 of them were forced to flee during the first Arab-Israeli war.
He also called on “the American government and the Arab brothers to work seriously towards the conclusion of the agreement (…) in order to spare the Palestinian people the horror of this devastating war,” according to the Palestinian press agency Wafa.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, whose headquarters are in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, added that “everyone should be held responsible for any obstacle created by a party to disrupt the agreement.”
“Things are no longer acceptable and it is time for everyone to take responsibility,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority was driven out of the Gaza Strip in 2007 by the Islamist movement Hamas, which had won Palestinian elections a year earlier.
It is not part of ongoing talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, including the release of hostages held in that Palestinian territory in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Since Tuesday, Egypt has been hosting representatives of the United States, Israel's main supporter, and Qatar, where the Hamas leader is based, for a new ceasefire after a week at the end of November that notably allowed the release of a hundred hostages.