RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Hamas Tuesday to stop giving Israel “excuses” to keep up its devastating offensive in Gaza.
Israel resumed major strikes on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday that 58 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours.
In a statement, the Ramallah-based Palestinian presidency called on Hamas to “cease making any irresponsible decisions to spare our people the consequences of (the Israeli) aggression”.
The statement pointed to the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. “Stop giving the occupation any excuses to continue its genocide,” it said.
It called on Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, to “adhere to the official Palestinian position and the Arab initiatives”.
Gaza rescuers say 19 killed in Israeli strikes overnight
French President Emmanuel Macron met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi of Egypt in Cairo Monday, where they called for Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to rule Gaza after a ceasefire, and for Hamas to have no role in post-war governance.
The Palestinian Authority is dominated by Abbas’s Fatah movement, Hamas’s longtime rival.
At their Cairo meeting, the three leaders called for an “immediate return” to the two-month ceasefire that effectively ended in March.
In its statement, the Palestinian presidency also denounced a newly established Israeli corridor in south Gaza as a violation of international law.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the creation of the Morag axis between the south Gaza cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah last week.
He presented the axis as a new Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land along the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt that the Israeli army has already cleared of buildings.
Witnesses told AFP Tuesday that Israeli forces were present on the axis, and had set up a surveillance crane equipped with a machine gun at one of its crossroads.
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