Abbas blames Hamas for bomb attack on PM

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the Islamist Hamas group on Monday for the March 13 bomb attack on the convoy of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza, saying it was a "despicable and sinful act".

Hamdallah and Palestinian security chief Majid Faraj were uninjured when a roadside bomb exploded as they entered the Gaza Strip on their way to a ceremony in the enclave that is dominated by the Hamas faction, a rival of Abbas' Fateh.

"We congratulate the two big brothers [Hamdallah and Faraj] that they are safe after the sinful and despicable attack that was carried out against them by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip," Abbas said in a speech in Ramallah.

He offered no evidence to support the statement.

Immediately after the bombing, Abbas’s Western-backed Palestinian Authority said it held Hamas responsible for the attack near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, but it stopped short of directly accusing the group of carrying out the assault.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the bomb attack.

The attack on the prime minister, who is spearheading the Authority’s reconciliation efforts with Hamas, took place as the White House prepared to hold a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Six security guards were wounded, Hamdallah said shortly after the attack.

In Monday’s speech to Palestinian officials, Abbas also criticised US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman for his support of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling the envoy a “son of a dog”.

US embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

Friedman is a strong supporter of Israel’s settler movement, and was an early and enthusiastic advocate of US President Donald Trump’s December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there.

Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, although that is not recognised internationally. Palestinians feel equally strongly, saying that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.