THE Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, responded Thursday to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, affirming that Palestinian resistance is a ‘national and moral responsibility, deriving its legitimacy from our steadfast Palestinian people and their natural right to resist occupation, as recognised by international laws and conventions’.
Hamas categorically rejected what it described as Abbas’ ‘alignment with the false Zionist narrative’, asserting that accusing the resistance of targeting civilians is an attempt to distort its image.
The Movement underlined that ‘all attempts to impose guardianship over our people and their will are doomed to fail’, adding that Abbas’ declaration that Hamas will have no role in governance constitutes ‘an infringement on the inherent right of our Palestinian people to determine their own destiny and choose their leadership, and an unacceptable submission to external agendas and projects’.
Hamas emphasised that ‘the weapons of resistance are untouchable as long as the occupation remains entrenched on our land’.
It condemned Abbas’ call to surrender arms, especially ‘in light of the genocidal war being waged against our people in Gaza, and the brutal crimes and savage assaults committed by armed settlers and the occupation army against unarmed civilians in the occupied West Bank’.
Hamas reiterated that the only path to safeguarding the national cause and confronting the occupation’s plans to ‘exterminate and displace our people in Gaza, annex the West Bank, and Judaise Jerusalem and al-Aqsa,’ lies in ‘national unity and consensus around a comprehensive resistance programme to confront the criminal Zionist occupation, until our people’s aspirations for liberation, return, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital are fulfilled’.
The statement concluded by affirming that ‘our steadfast people are the source of legitimacy, and the weapons of resistance are a red line that cannot be compromised’.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation forces, backed by the United States and Western countries, have been waging a devastating war in Gaza, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of approximately 233,000 Palestinians to date.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, 442 Palestinians, including 147 children, have died from starvation.
Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) has said that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Gaza City are now forcibly displaced again by Israel, and the central and southern governorates, particularly the al-Mawasi area, have no spaces for more people.
‘There are no longer any empty or safe spaces to absorb more displaced people,’ GMO said in a statement on Thursday, adding that makeshift tents sprung up alongside unsafe roads ‘in conditions that lack the minimum requirements of a dignified life’.
GMO said the Israeli occupation army continues to prevent donated tents from getting inside Gaza, while the few remaining in marketplaces are extremely expensive, leaving many people without any sort of shelter from the bad weather.
This is a result of a ‘systematic policy’ by Israel that is backed by the US administration, it added, calling for international action to provide the Gaza population with immediate protection.
In fact, the imperialist powers are on the brink of a major historical defeat at the hands of the Palestinian people of Gaza.
They are so desperate that they have had to turn to the completely discredited Tony Blair as ‘Gaza’s best hope for peace’.
Their plan, the joint work of the Tony Blair institute and Jared Kushner, would see the creation of the Gaza International Transition Authority (Gita) once ‘Hamas has been removed’.
This new body would rule the territory for a number of years with Sir Tony Blair chairing Gita’s seven member board ‘once Hamas has been removed’.
‘Crucially, Sir Tony would be serving as Gaza’s Prime Minister.’ Blair, unelectible as an MP, wants to transfer his attentions to the Middle East.
The British trade union movement must respond to Blair’s arrogance by taking general strike action in support of the Palestinian people to bring down the Starmer government and bring in a UK Workers Government that will give full support to the Palestinians to establish their own state of Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank!