Palestine envoy refuses to condemn Hamas attack on Israel

NEW DELHI: Palestine Ambassador to India Adnan Abu Al-Hija on Monday refused to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel. He instead questioned world leaders for not condemning Israeli militias action in West Bank.

Asked whether he is condemning Hamas attack, he said, "No sure not, sure not. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people and I condemn the occupation. If there is no occupation, there is no Hamas, there is no ..., there is no arm except the government arm. Israel has its militias, right and what they are doing same what Hamas maybe, the operation of Hamas is a little bit bigger, right. But no one condemn what the daily settlers do, those militias, Israeli militias in West Bank."

In an exclusive interview with ANI, he claimed that 260 Palestinians have been killed so far in 2023. He further alleged that more than 5000 people are in Israeli prisons and about 300 people remain under administrative detention in Israel.

He said, "What about the Palestinian? What about the Palestinian? The Palestinian I'm talking about, from the beginning of this year, 260 people have been killed. They are civilian. Secondly, we have more than 5000 in the Israelis jail. We have about 300 people administrative detention in Israel. They make hunger strike to release them. They have nothing, the Israelis have nothing against just put them in jail. Now, anyone who want to condemn what Hamas have done, he should before condemn what the Israelis and their settlers do in West Bank."

Adnan Abu Al-Hija noted that any conflict is bad from the beginning but people need to know why Hamas carried out attack on Hamas.

He questioned world over its silence on actions of Israel. He said, "Any conflict or any bloody conflict is very bad from the beginning but we have I think to know why Hamas have attacked. Now, if you look to the situation we can take it just to the years ago. We should go back to years of massacres committed by the Israelis forces and their settler armed militias."

He accused Israel of killing more than 260 people in Palestine since the beginning of the year and added that no one condemned Israel's action.

"Now, from the beginning of this year, the Israelis have killed more than 260 people in Palestine, in West Bank. No one talk about it, no one condemned that. The Israelis every day confiscate land, building settlements, jailing people, killing people. The settlers are doing same what the Israeli occupying forces do the same by killing and defended by I think in Israel they work in one system, from the High Court to the settlers. "Why Because the settler killed one of the Palestinians when they caught him and rarely killed him. While the Palestinian, if he do anything against the Israelis, within few hours they caught him. The settler, when they take him to the court, the sentence will be you are not allowed to go two weeks to West Bank. So they make all their crimes and defendant in that system, from the High Court to the government, to the police, to the settlers," he added.

He expressed hope that the Palestinians will get their independent state.

Palestinian envoy said that Israel wants peace and land at the same time and added that "they will never get it." He said that Palestinians want to live with the Israelis in peace and spoke about the Oslo agreement.

Asked whether the situation should de-escalate now as the attacks are taking place inside Gaza and other places, he said, "I hope there is no war ever. I hope the Palestinian will get their independent state. I think we have signed Oslo agreement 30 years ago and after from 1999 we should be independent. But, the Israelis in that time they are destroying these agreements and destroying the two state solution. They want peace and land at the same time and they will never get it. Why because we have the right, like any other people in the world, to live in peace."

"We want to live with the Israelis in peace and because of that we went to Oslo agreement. Because of that we accept 22 per cent of our historical land to establish the independent state of Palestine," he added. In a major escalation on October 7, Hamas launched a "surprise attack" on Israel, firing a barrage of rockets into the southern and central parts of the country. According to Israeli local media cited by The Times of Israel, more than 700 Israelis have died since Saturday's attack. According to Israeli government, over 2000 people have been injured in the attack. As the Hamas terror group attacks on Israel continue for the third day,"

There is a very active scene in the southern city of Sderot in Israel as people living there can still hear explosions happening in the distance, Israeli-based television channel i24NEWS reported.

According to the reports, there are about six to seven active, ongoing scenes of exchange gunfire between Hamas terrorists and Israeli soldiers, i24NEWS reported.