Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visiting the West Bank city of Jenin. Photo: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman

On Saturday, the Hamas terror organization surprised Israel with a massive attack from the Gaza Strip, and Israel is now at war.

The number murdered has risen to at least 800 — and thousands wounded, in addition to more than 100 Israelis taken hostage, some of whom were abducted into the Gaza Strip, including small children, teenagers, and senior citizens, as well as soldiers.

The massacre on Israel is fully supported by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah.

While Israel counted more than 700 dead, 2,000 wounded, and more than 100 hostages, a Fatah official said that this is a “morning of victory, joy, and pride.”

He then urged all Palestinians to participate in the terror against Israel — in what he termed “this story of heroism”:

Fatah Jenin branch member Abd Al-Rahman Abu Al-Rub: “We say to our people and to the members of the Palestinian people: A morning of victory, and morning of joy, a morning of pride. We ask Allah to send a blessing to our heroic Martyrs in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and wherever the Palestinian people is…

We in the Fatah Movement in the Jenin district convey the message to all our brothers and to all our Palestinian people that they are compelled to take action and participate in this story of heroism with the Palestinian people that is realizing its natural right to fight the occupation and liberate the occupied lands.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Oct. 8, 2023]

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas justified Hamas’ attack and massacre of civilians as “self-defense”:

Posted text: “[PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] instructs to provide defense to our people and emphasizes our right to defend ourselves. In the coming hours he will lead a convention of the Palestinian leadership.”

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Oct. 7, 2023]

“[PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] instructed to provide defense to our people, and he emphasized the Palestinian people’s right to self-defense facing the terror of the settlers and the occupation forces.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh echoed this, calling the Hamas massacre a “natural result of Israel’s continued crimes,” and blaming Israel for not “acceding to [the Palestinian] recurring warning against the severe consequences”:

[PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh emphasized … that Israel’s destruction of the two-state solution will not cause it to enjoy peace, which will only be achieved when the Palestinian people receives its legitimate rights.

Shtayyeh emphasized the Palestinian people’s right to defend its land and its holy sites, which are always being violated [by Israel].

Shtayyeh said that what is happening today  is a natural result of not acceding to our recurring warning against the severe consequences of Israel’s continued crimes, while it feels that it can evade punishment.” [emphasis added]

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

Furthermore, Abbas’ Fatah Movement called to “escalate the confrontation in all arenas” — obviously urging terror in the West Bank as well:

The Fatah Movement called on the masses of our people to hold a general strike tomorrow, Sunday [Oct. 8, 2023], and to escalate the confrontation in all arenas in order to defend our people and our right to freedom, a state, and independence. [emphasis added]

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

Fatah used this photo of a masked man wearing a yellow Fatah headband swinging a slingshot to fire a rock while facing an explosion to accompany its call for terror “in all arenas,” while cheering for the Palestinian terrorists already involved:

“Fatah calls on the masses of our people to declare tomorrow, Sunday, as a day of general strike and intensifying the confrontation in all arenas of confrontation with the occupation, in order to defend our people and our sacred right to freedom, a state, and independence.

Glory to the Martyrs, healing to the wounded, and victory to our mighty Palestinian people.” [emphasis added]

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Oct. 7, 2023]

The PA and Fatah has justified the Hamas massacre, claiming it is a “natural response” to what they say is Jews “defiling” their Jerusalem and holy places, and Israel’s “aggression and crimes against our people and its Islamic and Christian holy sites”:

“In a statement this evening, Saturday [Oct. 7, 2023], Fatah added that the occupation is continuing its aggression and its crimes against our people and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, and that it is continuing it cruel attack against our male and female prisoners amid international silence. It called to provide our people with defense.” [emphasis added]

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

Another statement by Fatah also emphasized “the Palestinian people’s right to self-defense” and Fatah’s participation in terror — “the heroic battle”:

“Fatah is participating in defending our people everywhere, and we emphasize to the Fatah members in particular and to all our people that we must strengthen the cohesion in this heroic battle. We hope that everyone everywhere will defend our villages, our towns, and our cities against the attacks of the occupation and its settlers.” [emphasis added]

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

The chairman of the legislative body of the PLO, Rawhi Fattouh, also stressed the unity between Fatah and Hamas — in his words “the solidarity of the people” — while referring to the massacre of murders, wounding, and hostage taking as “brave resistance.”

He vowed that this “defense of Palestinian honor” will “continue”:

“[Palestinian] National Council Chairman Rawhi Fattouh also praised the solidarity of our people throughout the homeland, its resolve, and its brave resistance. He added that this legendary resolve will increase its determination to continue defending its honor, and that Palestine will remain a symbol of resolve.” [emphasis added]

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 8, 2023]

The extraordinary ability to ignore and deny Palestinian terror atrocities hasn’t failed them this time either. Without mentioning Hamas’ massive attack on Israel and murder of hundreds, Fatah turned everything upside down and cheered the Palestinian people as “creating heroism and miracles” while facing an attack from Israel!

Abbas’ movement further added the well-known antisemitic “excuse” for violence: That Jews are “defiling” Jerusalem and the holy sites:

“The masses of our mighty people that refuses to fall, who are creating heroism and miracles facing the criminal and ugly attack to which our people is being subjected in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and out of a continuation of the acts that harm and defile our Jerusalem and our holy sites, and also in the shadow of the ongoing attack and oppression against our female and male prisoners, and facing the strengthening attack on our Gaza Strip and the cities, villages, and [refugee] camps of our Palestinian West Bank — we bid farewell to the processions of Martyrs who died on the altar of freedom in order to be rid of the occupation.” [emphasis added]

[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Oct. 7, 2023]

Fattouh echoed this reverse way of presenting the terror war on Israel, when he “held the Israeli occupation’s racist government fully responsible for the attacks that are taking place and the bombing of the Gaza Strip” without mentioning that Hamas started with its massive attack on Israel. [WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

Fattouh even added a demand of “immediate intervention by the UN Security Council to defend the Palestinian people.”

Similarly, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Abbas to condemn Hamas’ attack on Israel, Abbas had the audacity to present the war as “the bloody Israeli escalation” against which the “defenseless” Palestinians need “international protection”:

His Honor [Abbas] emphasized that the current Israeli escalation against our people must be stopped, and that the reason for this is the actions of the settlers and the Israeli occupation forces, the aggression against the Islamic and Christian holy sites, and especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque — which we have warned about. … He also emphasized that it is necessary to provide international protection to our defenseless people that is being subjected to bloody Israeli aggression.

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 7, 2023]

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.