In a Friday sermon, Mahmoud Habbash, Advisor to PA President Abbas, slammed Hamas for "sending children to be killed or lose a limb, while [its] leaders are having a good time." Speaking on April 27 in a sermon that was attended by President Abbas and was broadcast on the official PA TV channel, Habbash called Hamas "agenda-driven and reckless gamblers," whose "only job is to go to funerals and to visit mourning tents," and he urged Gazans to keep their actions peaceful.
Following is a transcript:
Mahmoud Habbash: Let me talk about what is happening in Gaza – the gambling with the lives of women and children, in a war that has nothing whatsoever to do with Palestine. They talked – as we did – about popular and peaceful resistance. So why are you [in Hamas] sacrificing children? You are dispatching them to meet their deaths, facing the soldiers of the occupation. Are you doing that for the sake of Palestine? Absolutely not! Palestine has no need for any of this. Palestine has no part in any of this. Religion has no part in any of this. Yesterday, I heard one of their satans – an accursed satan who calls himself “Mufti”… I heard him saying that this is the greatest Jihad. Seriously? Sending children to be killed or lose a limb, while your leaders are having a good time? Their only job now is to go to funerals and to visit mourning tents – after all, these are not their own children. The people in Gaza are our own flesh and blood. Our dear and beloved people of Gaza, do not listen to those gamblers. Keep all your actions peaceful. Do not obey those agenda-driven and reckless gamblers, who want to reinvent themselves through blood.
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