Abbas Warns Israel of Armed Resistance if Killing Palestinians Continues

Amid rising violence against Palestinians by the Israeli forces, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the State of Palestine, warned that if this trend continues, he will support armed Palestinian resistance.

This Friday and in a reaction to Israel’s rising violence against the people of Palestine, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Israel that the violence and killing of Palestinians must immediately stop, otherwise, he will support armed resistance against Israeli forces.

“I do not support armed Palestinian Resistance, but that could change. It could change — tomorrow, the next day, or some other time. Everything changes,” Abbas said in an interview with Al Arabiya this Friday. The Palestinian President also noted that “the Palestinian people are being oppressed and oppressed and oppressed to the point where they explode; Palestinians are being made to lose their patience.”

This threatening language from Abbas comes after the Israeli Occupation Forces shot and killed three Palestinians at point blank range in an overnight raid of the Occupied West Bank this week.

The three men were named as Sedqi Zakarneh, 29, from the city of Jenin; Tareq Al-Damej, 29, from Jenin refugee camp; and Atta Shalaby, 46, from Qabatya, near Jenin.

Following the killings, local Palestinians took to the streets in Jenin and protested against Israeli forces, the result of which was a direct fighting between the two sides in which at least ten Palestinians were wounded by live fire. Good to mention that since the beginning of January, Israeli forces have killed 216 people in Palestine, an average of one Palestinian killed every 1.5 days so far this year alone.

After the quarrel with unarmed Palestinians, Israeli forces also raided and destroyed the Culture Ministry Office of Jenin. They blew up the main door of the Ministry building and barged into the office, tampering with its contents and damaging books and paintings on display.

Following the attack, the Culture Ministry issued a statement and while condemning the move, emphasized the urgent need to expose the arbitrary crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian cultural sectors.

The world should end its silence, Abbas says

Aside from threatening Israel to stop its violence against Palestinians, he also criticized the deafening silence of the international community in the face of Israel’s crime in Palestine.

Abbas said in this regard that “the continued international silence, impunity and lack of accountability that have encouraged the Israeli government to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people must end.” He even threatened to withdraw Palestine from the security agreements with Israel, known as the Oslo Accords, if Tel Aviv continues to disregard humanitarian and political matters.

Back in 2020, Palestine briefly suspended the security agreement due to the Israel’s plan to annex all or parts of the Occupied West Bank.

“We are against terrorism and violence, but if Israel continues with its actions, why should I complete and be committed to the security agreement? I will cancel my commitment to the security agreement if Israel continues to strike casually.”

Is more violence expected in Palestine?

Despite the strong language that Abbas used to threaten Israel against further violence in Palestine, future developments in Israel signal even more tensions.

This is mostly because following the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s elections early in November, his coalition will have at least 64 members of parliament primarily from religious, very conservative, right-wing extremists who are not at all in favor of peace with Palestinians.

It is worth mentioning that two of the leading members of Israel’s Religious Zionism alliance, namely Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, have, in many occasions, openly called for armed violence against Palestinians. And the irony is that to be able to form a coalition government and prevent another election in Israel, Netanyahu needs the support of these two anti-Palestine politicians.