Palestinian President Abbas urges Hamas to “quickly” agree to Gaza deal, reports say

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday urged Hamas to quickly agree on a Gaza deal to avoid “dire consequences,” the official Palestinian news agency reported.

“We call on the Hamas movement to quickly conclude a prisoner agreement to save our Palestinian people from another catastrophic event with dire consequences and no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948,” Abbas said of the wars that accompanied the founding of the nation. 760,000 Palestinians in Israel have fled or been forced to leave their homes.

The war began with an attack by Hamas on October 7, which left about 1,200 people dead and about 250 abducted. Israel says Hamas still holds about 100 hostages, while Hamas is holding the bodies of about 30 other hostages who were either killed or died in custody. Large swaths of territory have been razed to the ground by Israeli offensives, and about 80% of the population has been displaced.

Abbas’s internationally recognized Palestinian Authority (PA) is not participating in talks hosted by Egypt this week aimed at securing a ceasefire more than four months after the end of the war. The Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah in the West Bank, is widely derided by Palestinians who have failed to realize their aspirations for statehood since 1948.

The United States, which funds the Palestinian Authority, has said it supports the establishment of a Palestinian state but wants an overhaul of leadership. Abbas’ request comes as Israel and Hamas are making progress on another ceasefire and agreement to release hostages. Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to expand its offensive to Gaza’s southern edge, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have sought asylum.

Negotiations continued in Egypt, where Israeli forces rescued two captives in the crowded southern town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, according to local health officials, in an attack that killed at least 74 Palestinians. As it stands, a ceasefire would give the people of Gaza much-needed respite from a war now in its fifth month and provide freedom for at least some of those still imprisoned in Gaza.

(Institutional investment)