Palestinian groups reject appointment of Abbas loyalists

Three Palestinian groups – Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have rejected the appointment of loyalists of Palestinian Authority (PA) President, Mahmoud Abbas to senior positions in the PLO.

“No recognition of, and no legitimacy to, the appointments announced by the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) during its illegitimate meeting on Sunday and Monday,” the groups said in a joint statement.

The 142-member PCC – a key decision-making body of the PLO – consists of various PLO factions, including the PFLP. Hamas and PIJ are not part of the PLO or any of its bodies.

During the session in Ramallah earlier, the council approved the appointment of Abbas associates Hussein al-Sheikh, Rouhi Fattouh, Mohammed Mustafa and Ramzi Khoury to fill vacancies in the PLO Executive Committee and its parliament in exile, the Palestinian National Council (PNC).

Abbas’s critics said that he convened the council to promote his loyalists, especially Sheikh, and consolidate his power over the Palestinian leadership.

Sheikh, 62, head of the Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs, is regarded as one of Abbas’s most trusted aides. Some Palestinians are convinced that the 86-year-old Abbas is grooming him as his successor.

Sheikh was elected to replace Saeb Erekat, who served as Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee and chief Palestinian negotiator until his death in 2020.

Fattouh, another longtime Abbas associate, was chosen as speaker of the PNC, replacing Salim Zanoun, who retired after 30 years on the job.

Mustafa and Khoury, who are also closely associated with Abbas, were picked by the PCC members to serve as members of the PLO Executive Committee, the organization’s most important decision-making body.

The promotion of the Abbas loyalists is seen by some Palestinians as an attempt by the PA president to determine the identity of the future leaders of the Palestinians.

The appointments, in addition, send a message to the Palestinians, Israel and the US that their next leaders will continue with the same policies of Abbas.

The rare joint statement by Hamas, PIJ and the PFLP said that the appointments “do not represent our people, and constitute a breach of the national consensus and a suppression of the will of the Palestinian people.”

The groups called on the Palestinian leadership to immediately cancel the appointments and end its hegemony over Palestinian institutions. They further called for the establishment of a transitional PNC that would pave the way for holding general elections.

The parliamentary and presidential elections were supposed to take place in May and July. Abbas, however, called off the elections on the pretext that Israel had refused to allow them to take place in Jerusalem. Abbas’s political rivals have rejected the claim, saying he canceled the vote over fear that his fragmented and corruption-riddled Fatah faction would lose.

Hamas, PIJ and PFLP said in their statement that there will be no return to the Oslo track, referring to the 1993 accords signed between the PLO and Israel. The groups stressed that the only way to deal with Israel was through resistance, and called for the formation of a national unified command of the popular resistance to act against IDF soldiers and settlers.

The PCC issued a final communiqué on Wednesday night saying that it has decided to end security coordination between PA security forces and the IDF, and suspend Palestinian recognition of Israel. The statement, issued a day after the IDF killed three Fatah gunmen in Nablus, is seen as an attempt by the PA leadership to placate the Palestinian public.

A similar statement issued by the council in 2018 was completely ignored by the PA leadership.

The three men killed were responsible for a series of shooting attacks on soldiers and settlers in the Nablus area in the past few weeks. Their killing sparked widespread anger among many Palestinians, some of whom claimed that this was the direct result of the security coordination with Israel.

The slain gunmen belonged to Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Some of their friends in Nablus accused the PA of helping Israel track them down, noting that two of them had been previously harassed and threatened by the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.

The PCC decision to end security coordination and suspend Palestinian recognition of Israel has not been taken seriously by many Palestinians, including members of Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction.

“I thought I was reading the same statement that the council issued in 2018,” said a senior Fatah official in Ramallah. “Whoever issued the statement on Wednesday must think that the Palestinians are stupid. Everyone knows that decisions like these are just intended for international consumption and are never implemented.”

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem played down the significance of the PCC statement, saying its decisions will remain ink on paper. The council meeting, he said, did not represent the aspirations of the Palestinians.

IDF strikes Gaza in retaliation

According to a report by The Jerusalem Post Palestinians fired surface-to-air missiles towards Israel Air Force helicopters during airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the two rockets that had been fired earlier towards central Israel earlier in the morning.

According to reports in the Hamas-run enclave, operatives fired SA-7 missiles as well as a number of test rockets towards the sea. Groups in the Strip have fired SAMs towards Israeli platforms during past operations over the Gaza Strip, none have caused any damage, including during the strikes on Saturday evening.

The IDF confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that missiles were fired at the helicopters.

The Soviet-designed SA-7 is a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile (SAMs) that was designed to target aircraft flying at low altitudes. First used in combat by Egyptian troops during the War of Attrition with Israel in 1969, the system likely entered the Gaza Strip via smuggling routes from the Sinai Peninsula following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011.

The Israeli strikes targeted a Hamas site located west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and IDF artillery targeted sites in the northern Gaza Strip as well. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said it had struck a number of targets in Hamas's rocket production complex. 

Two rockets launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fell in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of central Israel, one off the coast of Tel Aviv and the other off the coast of Palmachim south of Rishon Letzion early on Saturday morning.

“Earlier this morning, two rocket launches were identified from the Gaza Strip toward the Mediterranean. The rockets fell off the coast of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. According to protocol, no sirens were sounded and no interception took place,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

The rockets were heard in the cities of Tel Aviv, Holon, Bat Yam, and Rishon Lezion.

While Hamas claimed that the rocket fire on Saturday morning was triggered by bad weather, the military believes that the rocket fire was carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Nevertheless, "the terrorist organization Hamas is responsible for what is happening in the Gaza Strip and bears the consequences of terrorist acts from the Gaza Strip," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at the beginning of the cabinet meeting, said that such excuses would not be accepted by Israel.

“I want to clarify something here - all of Hamas’ of thunder and lightning, which repeat themselves winter after winter, are no longer relevant,” he said."Whoever directs missiles at the State of Israel - bears responsibility."

The rocket fire came just days after a civilian working on the Gaza border fence was shot and lightly wounded near the border with the northern Gaza Strip.

Shortly after the shooting, the IDF responded with artillery fire towards a number of Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian reports claimed that at least three Gazan farmers were wounded in the retaliatory strikes.

The rocket launches come as the Israeli military said that this had been the longest period of operational quiet in relation to the four most recent operations in the coastal enclave.

The spike in tensions around the Gaza Strip comes amid a wave of terror attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as growing tensions in Israeli prisons. 

Additionally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has demanded the release of Hisham Abu Hawash, a Palestinian in administrative detention who has been on hunger strike for over 130 days. Hawash’s detention has reportedly been frozen in recent days, although he is continuing his hunger strike and is hospitalized.

 

Is Iran the only supporter of Palestinians?

Reportedly, in a recent interview, Abu Jamal, a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, stated the group and the ‘Palestinian Resistance’ benefited from Iranian support in its war against Israel.

“We and the Islamic Republic fought the Zionist enemy in Lebanon and we also fought them in Gaza and the West Bank with the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Jamal stated.

Furthermore, Jamal lauded the relationship the group had with Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by referring to them as ‘blood brothers’ and ‘comrades’ that shared a ‘common destiny’ in defeating Israel.

It’s unclear when Iran began supporting the group. However, in 2013, Iran reportedly resumed military and financial support to the group after leaders from both sides held several meetings in Tehran, Beirut and Damascus under the auspices of Hezbollah.

Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PFLP, and Popular Resistance Committees have boasted about their relationship with Iran including military support they have received. After the May conflict in Gaza, the aforementioned groups praised Iran and Hezbollah for their military support during the eleven days of fighting. Additionally, smaller Palestinian factions have benefited from some Iranian aid including the now defunct Harakat al-Sabireen.

The close relationship between Iran and the PFLP was also on display when a PFLP delegation met with President Ibrahim Raisi after his swearing in ceremony in August. As expected, Raisi affirmed the Islamic Republic’s continued support for the ‘Palestinian Resistance’ and the ‘liberation of Palestine.’

It is difficult to say to what extent Iran has supported the PFLP militarily and financially. The group has purposely been ambiguous about what it exactly receives in terms of funding and arms from Iran.

However, it’s likely larger groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad receive the lion share of military guidance, weapons and funding from the assistance Iran has allocated for the ‘Palestinian Resistance.’

Despite what it may or may not receive in military and financial support, the PFLP has made no qualms about showing its support and allegiance to the Islamic Republic and other members of the ‘Resistance Axis.’

After the May 2021 Gaza-Israel conflict, the PFLP held a military parade where its fighters showed their support for Iran and the IRGC by displaying pictures of former Quds Force Lieutenant-General Qasem Soleimani.