Abbas calls Hamas 'sons of dogs' and demands release of Gaza hostages

Mahmoud Abbas has called Hamas "sons of dogs" in a fiery speech in which he demanded the group release the hostages it is still holding, disarm, and hand over control of Gaza in order to end the war with Israel.

The president of the Palestinian Authority told a meeting in the occupied West Bank that Hamas had given Israel "excuses" to continue its attacks on Gaza, and told it to "release the hostages and be done with it".

The remarks were the strongest against the group that the president has delivered since the war began 18 months ago.

A Hamas official condemned what he called Abbas's "derogatory language" towards "a significant proportion... of his own people".

Last week, the group rejected an Israeli proposal for a new ceasefire in Gaza, which included a demand to disarm in return for a six-week pause in hostilities and the release of 10 of the 59 remaining hostages.

Hamas reiterated that it would hand over all of the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal. It also ruled out giving up its weapons.

The PA, which is led by Abbas and dominated by his Fatah movement, has only governed parts of the West Bank since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won legislative elections.

The PA's leadership has regularly insisted it is ready to take over running post-war Gaza. But it has been criticised by Palestinians for not speaking out enough or taking effective action.

Abbas lashed out at Hamas in furious speech in Ramallah.

"Hamas has given the criminal occupation [Israel] excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages," he said.

"Sons of dogs, just release whoever you're holding and be done with it. Shut down their excuses and spare us."

The president also said Hamas must "hand over" responsibility for Gaza and its weapons to the PA, and transform into a political party.

A member of Hamas's political bureau, Bassem Naim, criticised Abbas's decision to "describe a significant and integral part of his own people using derogatory language", according to AFP news agency.

"Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our people," he added.

Hamas and the PA have been bitterly divided for decades, with their rift ensuring that no unified Palestinian leadership in both the West Bank and Gaza has been able to emerge.

Abbas, 89, is seen as an irrelevance by many Palestinians.

He has remained in power without election for many years, presiding over a PA that is seen by its critics as ineffective at best and corrupt at worst. Hamas has essentially accused it of collaborating with Israel.

Israel started blocking all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its offensive two weeks later, saying that the pressure would force Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Since then, at least 1,928 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday night, 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in the north-eastern Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City that was being used as a shelter for displaced families, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

The Civil Defence said its first responders also recovered another four bodies from attacks on two homes in the same area.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

The UN meanwhile warned that the 52-day Israeli blockade had deprived Gaza's 2.1 million population of "the basic necessities for human survival". It has reported a rise in malnutrition and severe shortages of medicines at hospitals.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany called on Israel to end the blockade, saying it was "intolerable".

"We urge Israel to immediately restart a rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to meet the needs of all civilians," said a joint statement, which added that Israel was bound under international law to allow aid deliveries.

However, Israel has insisted it is acting in full accordance with international law and that enough supplies of food and other aid were delivered to Gaza during the recent two-month ceasefire to keep the population alive for months.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 51,300 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.