Hamas Blasts ‘Lies’ in Abbas Speech: Palestine Needs Courageous President

Hamas on Tuesday blasted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for telling "lies" after he accused the resistance movement of trying to sabotage Palestinian unity through a series of Gaza bomb attacks

Hamas on Tuesday blasted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for telling "lies" after he accused the resistance movement of trying to sabotage Palestinian unity through a series of Gaza bomb attacks.

Unity talks "Abbas's speech is a web of lies, insults and disinformation," said Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, denouncing the Palestinian leader as "sectarian and partisan". "What the Palestinian people need is a courageous president," he said.

In a speech marking the 10th anniversary of the death of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Abbas said Hamas was behind the Gaza explosions which targeted leaders of his Fatah movement.

The blasts prompted the cancellation of a rare memorial service in Gaza for Arafat, the Fatah founder who died in mysterious circumstances in a hospital near Paris. "Those who caused the explosions in Gaza are the leaders of Hamas -- they are responsible," Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Earlier this year, the two nationalist movements signed a reconciliation agreement aimed at ending seven years of bitter and sometimes bloody rivalry which saw the West Bank and Gaza ruled by separate administrations.

Abbas also addressed the clashes which have gripped occupied east Al-Quds for the past four months and spoke about unrest at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound triggered by the demands of far-right Jewish fringe groups for the right to pray there.

The Palestinians "will defend Al-Aqsa and the churches against the settlers and extremists," he pledged.

Abbas also reaffirmed his plans to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council later this month calling for an end to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories by November 2016.   He promised that the Palestinians, who won the UN rank of observer state in 2012, would apply to join a host of international organizations if the resolution was blocked by a US veto.

"We will not tolerate any pressure," he said, referring to US efforts to dissuade the Palestinians from approaching the Security Council.