Palestinian groups condemn Mahmoud Abbas for blaming Hamas for Israel's war on Gaza

Several Palestinian groups have condemned President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday for blaming Hamas for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Hours after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 90 Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in Gaza, the Palestinian presidency issued a statement holding the Israeli government and the US administration to account for the massacre, as well as saying Hamas also holds some blame.

The PM accused the US of providing "all kinds of support to the occupation and its crimes, which are a link in the chain of daily massacres committed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," adding that it constitutes war crimes and genocide which violates international law.

Abbas continued by saying Hamas "is a partner in bearing legal, moral and political responsibility for the continuation of the Israeli war of genocide in Gaza Strip" by evading national unity and "pretexts to the occupying state".

He called on Hamas to prioritise national interests and remove the pretexts to stop Israel’s war.

Hamas has since denounced Abbas’ statement, with senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri telling Reuters the Palestinian Authority "has chosen to be in the same trench with the occupation" and "such an attitude will not succeed in blackmailing the resistance or pressuring it".

The group also called on the presidency to withdraw these "regrettable" statements and stressed that Israel and the US bear responsibility for the ongoing war.

Fatah leader Munir al-Jaghoub found the statement "offensive" to the people of Palestine. At the same time, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also condemned the statement.

"There is a state of broad popular and national solidarity with the resistance, which requires all national forces, including the Fatah movement and the leadership of the Authority, to adhere to the position of national consensus and stand firmly with the resistance, and to refrain from justifying the crimes of the occupation or identifying with its media propaganda," the Front’s statement reads.

The organisation is calling on all national parties to stop making such statements that increase tension and to be instead more unifying, reflecting the Palestine state rather than reinforcing the Israeli narrative.

While Abbas has led the State of Palestine for almost two decades, his reign has been controversial.

Activists have accused the PM of not taking a more active role in addressing Israel’s occupation, while the majority of diaspora Palestinians criticise him and referring to him as "a stick in the wheel of Palestinian democratic progression", according to Palestine and Israel researcher Emad Moussa.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed over 38,584 Palestinians since October and wounded at least 88,881 others in the same time frame. Around 10,000 others are believed to be still buried under the rubble. 

The war on the besieged enclave has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged Gaza into a deep humanitarian crisis.