Senior Fatah official defends Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians as 'defensive war' against Israel

The secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee described the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of largely Israeli civilians as a “defensive war” against the Jewish state.

Senior Fatah party official Jibril Rajoub defined the Hamas slaughter of Israeli women, children, elderly Holocaust survivors and babies as an action that was taken “in the context of the defensive war our people are waging.”

Rajoub delivered his inflammatory remarks during a meeting with journalists in Kuwait on Sunday

He further claimed that the unprecedented massacre in Israel was due to the Jewish state’s alleged “aggression on all the Palestinian lands" and attempted to justify the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as an act of defense, but failed to specify what “aggression” Israel had perpetrated before Oct. 7.

In late September, just days before the Hamas terror organization's brutal attack, Israel had reopened the Eretz border crossing for Gazan workers to enter the Jewish state for employment, despite the recent anti-Israel border riots.

Israeli witnesses recently revealed that Gazan civilians were accomplices in the Oct. 7 atrocities and that, in some cases, those same civilians attacked Israelis in the border communities where they had recently been offered employment.

Rajou also said the Hamas surprise attack “thwarted the goal of the Israeli right to integrate Israel into the region without resolving the Palestinian issue, based on the principle of peace in exchange for peace.”

The Fatah official’s statement was a reference to the historic Abraham Accords 2020 that led to the normalization of ties between Israel, and four Arab Gulf nations: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Prior to the events of Oct. 7, there had also been advanced negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Rajoub also ignored the fact that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has systematically rejected any two-state solution proposals presented by Israel and never attempted to respond with any reasonable and peaceful counteroffers.

The senior Fatah official’s statements are particularly significant because Washington and much of the international community view the PA, which is ruled by Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas, as a “moderate” counterweight to the fundamentalist terrorist organization Hamas.

The U.S. Biden administration has suggested that the PA assume responsibility for the Gaza Strip in a post-Hamas era.

“As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution,” U.S. President Joe Biden wrote in a Washington Post op-ed earlier in November.

Israel withdrew its troops and presence from Gaza in 2005 and has no interest in controlling the territory or its more than two million residents. However, following the Oct. 7 massacre and the subsequent war on Hamas, Israel can no longer tolerate hostile regimes threatening Israeli communities on its borders.

The PA regularly incites against Israel and the Jewish people.

For example, its controversial pay-for-slay policy rewards terrorists when they murder Israelis.

Abbas, often described by the West as a “moderate,” is a Holocaust denier who regularly falsifies Jewish history and spreads hatred against the Jewish people.

The Abbas-led PA regime in Ramallah failed to condemn the Hamas terror group for the atrocities it committed on Oct. 7 and even embraced conspiracy theories, such as the Israel Defense Forces turning against its own citizens and killing them on Oct. 7, despite the mountain of evidence and visual proof that Hamas terrorists committed the brutal slaughter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out the idea that the PA, in its current form, could be a trusted partner to rule the Gaza Strip without threatening Israel.

“The Palestinian Authority, in its current form, is not able to take responsibility for Gaza. After we fought and did all this, how could we hand it over to them?” Netanyahu asked earlier in November.