RAMALLAH – In a room steeped in tension and calculated silence, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, addressed the Palestinian Central Council with an unexpected yet forceful message. What many had hoped for for years finally happened: an explicit break with Hamas and a proposal to regain the Palestinian political course from the heart of Ramallah.
“Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in Gaza,” Abbas said with a firm voice, not raising the tone but with a clarity that ran through the room. “The most prominent of these excuses is hostage-taking.”
Abbas’ words were not only an internal criticism; they were a conscious strategy to redefine the role of the Palestinian Authority in the face of an international community that, for months, it has demanded more leadership from the West Bank while Gaza bears the brunt of a devastating offensive.
Advisers close to the president say that Abbas, aware of political wear and tear after years of stagnation, decided to take a new course: to break away from Hamas’s unilateral decisions and present himself as a serious interlocutor with global actors who, Increasingly, they recognize the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza without losing sight of the root of the conflict: the prolonged occupation, blockade and lack of self-determination of the Palestinian people.
“Gaza must return to Palestinian legitimacy,” Abbas stressed. “The Palestinian Authority is the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”
The statements quickly provoked reactions. Hamas, in a statement issued hours later, called the speech “insulting”, accusing Abbas of “yielding to the narrative of the occupier”. However, behind the scenes, several European diplomats and regional observers admitted that the Palestinian president’s move could be the first necessary step towards an internal Palestinian reconciliation that would allow a more unified front in the face of external pressures.
The conflict in Gaza has left thousands dead and wounded, mostly civilians, as humanitarian conditions are deteriorating day by day. In this context, the international community has begun to look again at the Palestinian Authority as a possible way out, an institutional structure that, with all its flaws, still maintains key diplomatic relations and legitimacy.
Abbas did not only speak for his people. He also spoke for Brussels, for Cairo, for Washington, and yes, even for Tel Aviv. But above all, he spoke as a leader who, in the midst of tragedy, still believes that the Palestinian people deserve representation, unity and sovereignty.
History will judge whether this moment was an inflection or a last attempt. But what is clear is that Mahmoud Abbas, this time, did not remain silent. And in Palestine, where every word weighs like a stone, that is already a statement in itself.
