PLO mourns Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, calls for national unity

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) issued a statement following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mourning him and calling for national unity.

The PLO’s executive committee sent its condolences to Hamas leaders and Sinwar’s family, calling for unity to "thwart the Israeli plan aimed at displacing our people from their homeland, whether in Gaza or the West Bank".

The PLO is an umbrella organisation including many factions and is dominated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, a major rival of Hamas, which is not included in the PLO.

The message on Friday added that the "continued Israeli occupation committing brutal massacres and genocide against the sons of Palestinian people and the Arab nation in Palestine and Lebanon confirms once again the failure of the far-right government of the Zionist entity to comply with international resolutions".

"This makes us more in need of unifying our ranks within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the sole legitimate representatives of our people, and assuming our national responsibilities to confront all attempts by our enemies aimed at destroying our national cause…" the statement added.

The PLO also called for an end to the Israeli occupation, an establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital.

The organisation’s executive committee added that the UN and international community should take practical steps to implement decisions that will hold Israel accountable.

In another statement, Fatah  also mourned Sinwar on Friday, stressing that “the occupation has undertaken a policy of killing and terrorism" and that it “will not break the will of the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate national rights to freedom and independence".

The Fatah movement also called for Palestinians to unite and "strengthen their steadfastness and confront the occupation, reject all conspiracies that aim to end the Palestinian cause and preserve the political and geographical unity between Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem".

The Ramallah-based Palestinian National Initiative, headed by Mustafa Barghouthi, echoed the statement adding that Sinwar while “fighting and resisting with his own life on the ground, defending the freedom of his people and his homeland".

The movement added that "the memory of Sinwar will remain alive among his people…with his martyrdom and departure to the eternal gardens only leading to the strengthening of the national struggle and resistance for freedom and liberation from the brutal occupation".

A similar statement was published by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who said Sinwar was fighting until his last moment and was "sacrificing himself in defence of his land, and was loyal to his people until the last moment, refusing to surrender or compromise…"

Hamas officially confirmed the death of Sinwar on Friday, after Israel had announced his death on Thursday.

"We mourn the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim," Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in a recorded video statement.

Israeli captives held by Hamas "will not return... unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from it, and our heroic prisoners are released from the occupation's prisons," he added.

Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, has continued for over a year and killed at least 42,519 Palestinians and wounded over 99,637 others. The war on the enclave has levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.