Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas pressed Hamas on Wednesday to agree on a Gaza deal quickly to avoid “dire consequences”, the official Palestinian news agency reported.
“We call on the Hamas movement to quickly complete a prisoner deal, to spare our Palestinian people from the calamity of another catastrophic event with dire consequences, no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948,” Abbas said, referring to the war accompanying the creation of Israel which saw 760,000 Palestinians flee or forced from their homes.
The war began with the October 7 Hamas attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed, and around 250 were abducted. Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, while Hamas is holding the remains of roughly 30 others who were either killed or died in captivity. Swaths of the territory have been flattened by Israel’s offensive and around 80% of the population has been displaced.
Abbas’s internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA) has not been involved in this week’s talks hosted by Egypt to secure a ceasefire after more than four months of the war. Seated in Ramallah in the West Bank, the PA is widely derided by Palestinians who have failed to see their aspirations for statehood realised since 1948.
The United States, which funds PA, has said it supports the creation of a Palestinian state but wants an overhaul of the leadership. Abbas’s plea comes as Israel and Hamas are making progress toward another ceasefire and hostage-release deal. Meanwhile, Israel threatened to expand its offensive to Gaza’s southern edge, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
The talks continued in Egypt as Israeli forces rescued two captives in Rafah, the packed southern town along the Egyptian border, in a raid that killed at least 74 Palestinians, according to local health officials. As things stand, a ceasefire deal would give people in Gaza a desperately needed respite from the war, now in its fifth month, and offer freedom for at least some of the people still held captive in Gaza.
(With agency inputs)
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