Palestinian Unity Government to be Announced Monday, Despite Israeli Threats
(Jerusalem Post / Worthy News)– The Palestinian unity government with Hamas will be announced on Monday "despite Israeli threats," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Taher a-Nunu said the "reconciliation train was about to arrive at its final station," and will mark the beginning of the restoration of Palestinian unity.
The unification ends a seven- year feud between Fatah and Hamas but appears to place a final nail in the coffin of the US-led peace process.
"We will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas," an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post and added that the United States supported this position.
"We have a commitment from the Americans, a commitment that was reiterated in the first Obama administration and was reiterated in the second," the official said.
"Hamas believes the State of Israel should be destroyed. They are very open about it," he added.
"If Abbas forms a pact with those extremists, he is associating himself with their extremist politics and not with the politics of peace," the official said.