Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia November 23, 2021. Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov/Kremlin via REUTERS

JNS.org – Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions have refused to acknowledge a series of recent appointments made by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post.

“[There is] no recognition of, and no legitimacy to, the appointments announced by the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) during its illegitimate meeting on Sunday and Monday,” said Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in a rare joint statement.

These choices “do not represent our people, and constitute a breach of the national consensus and a suppression of the will of the Palestinian people,” they added.

According to a report by World Israel News, the statement “illustrates escalating tensions and an increasingly public power struggle between the terror groups, whose influence over Jerusalem and PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria is steadily growing, and octogenarian Abbas, who is wildly unpopular and faces widespread calls to resign.”

In a meeting held last week in Ramallah, the headquarters of the PA, senior PA officials Hussein al-Sheikh, Rouhi Fattouh, Mohammed Mustafa and Ramzi Khoury were selected for key positions in the PLO Executive Committee and the Palestinian National Council (PNC), said the report.