by Itamar Marcus
The PLO set "no conditions" for Hamas and other factions to reunite within the PLO
The PA/Fatah/PLO have never been even close to ostracizing Hamas or other terrorist factions. On the contrary:
From the beginning of Hamas' war on Israel, Abbas wanted partnership with Hamas under the PLO
The PLO set "no conditions" for Hamas and other factions to reunite within the PLO
Abbas' message to Hamas: We're "ready to protect Hamas" if they join the PLO
Abbas' advisor: We want Hamas to join the PLO with their weapons
Abbas' advisor: "We insist on Hamas remaining and all the Palestinian factions remaining" under the PLO
Abbas' advisor: "Abbas' advisor: "Hamas... must join the PLO"
The central component of Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan is that "Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza." This echoes and is partially based on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' pledge last week to the UN:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "We [the PA] are ready to assume full responsibility for governance and security there [in the Gaza Strip]. Hamas will have no role in governance."
[UNNewsArabic YouTube channel, Sept. 25, 2025]
However, Mahmoud Abbas and the PA's pledges to Trump and the UN are exposed as lies, when compared with the internal PA discourse.
The truth is that after Hamas' popularity skyrocketed following its Oct. 7 atrocities, which the Palestinian population overwhelmingly supported, PA and Fatah leaders have repeatedly invited Hamas to join the PLO and govern together with the PA. Hamas remains the most popular faction among Palestinians with 2.5 times the support of Fatah [Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, May 2025]. The PA knows it cannot govern without Hamas.
The following are 20 examples of PA and Fatah officials' imploring Hamas to partner with the PA/Fatah in the PLO. Contrary to what Abbas told the UN and Trump, the PA seeks to hide Hamas within the PLO in this way, protecting it.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "The PLO has not stopped for a moment to attempt and is still attempting to open channels of dialogue, conversation, and understanding with Hamas... We [the PA] still want to include all the Palestinians under one umbrella, which is the umbrella of the PLO."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, July 29, 2025]
Fatah official Bassem Al-Tamimi: "The Hamas movement, in its current circumstances, is defined by many on the global level as a terrorist movement... Therefore, I think there should be a comprehensive national partnership under the umbrella of the PLO."
[Radio Mawtini, Sept. 17, 2025]
Jibril Rajoub: "I say to our brothers in Hamas, we in Fatah tell you: Let us reach an agreement regarding the vision that will reap the fruits of the sacrifice that the Palestinian people has made."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
Aug. 21, 2025]
As early as December 2023, only two months after Hamas' massacre on Oct. 7, Palestinian Media Watch documented that the PA was pushing for unity with Hamas. Senior PLO official Azzam Al-Ahmad had received "instructions" from PA Chairman Abbas to "contact Hamas." Al-Ahmad disclosed that the PLO did not wish to make any "conditions" of Hamas or other terror factions "for entering an agreement" and that "all the factions need to unite within the PLO":
"Senior PLO official Azzam Al-Ahmad informed [Saudi state-owned] Al-Arabiya TV that he received instructions from Palestinian [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas to make contact with Hamas [and…]that he contacted [Hamas Political Bureau member] Musa Abu Marzouq and [Hamas Political Bureau Chairman] Ismail Haniyeh… He added that the PLO did not set conditions for entering an agreement with the other Palestinian sides, and he emphasized that the PLO is ready for a meeting in Cairo. He also noted that all the factions need to be under the PLO framework."
[Al-Arabiya TV website (Saudi Arabia), Dec. 15, 2023]
Then PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh stated that the PA envisioned Hamas becoming "a junior partner" within the PLO, helping build "the new independent state":
"Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said his preferred outcome of the conflict that started Oct. 7 would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the broader Palestine Liberation Organization, helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem… ‘Hamas before Oct. 7 is one thing and after is another thing,' said Shtayyeh… Palestinians should not be divided."
[Bloomberg (US), Dec. 8, 2023]
Top PA official Jibril Rajoub adamantly promoted the same message of unity in the following days, courting Hamas and other terrorist factions of "political Islam":
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We say to our brothers in Hamas… I call on them, on behalf of the Palestinian leadership, Mahmoud Abbas, and the PLO Executive Committee – we say to them [Hamas]: Come build a political rapprochement regarding the international project, and build rapprochement regarding the struggle (i.e., terror)… We say to our brothers in Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement– the ball is in your court."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
Dec. 17, 2023]
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We in the Fatah Movement think that this [Israeli] aggression (i.e., Israeli war on Hamas to free the hostages)… necessitates us all to view the [Hamas-Fatah] rift as finished and to get over it…Our contacts with the Hamas Movement have not stopped…We expect that our brothers in Hamas will take action to formulate a political, struggle-based, and organizational approach as a strategic choice that will protect a series of national achievements…
The PLO needs reorganization so that it will become the umbrella organization of all the Palestinians and of all the national action factions, including the political Islam [Hamas]…
Another matter is the PA, …which also needs a reexamination, so that it will be a national unity government."
[Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 14, 2023]
Via one of its regular columnists in its official daily, the PA also gave Hamas its stamp of approval:
"I hope that Hamas...will examine itself again and turn in the direction of the PLO, because the organization has never closed its door, neither to Hamas nor to the [Islamic] Jihad nor to any national power. I hope they will come to the right path and become partners within the PLO."
[Official PA TV, Feb. 11, 2024]
As shown in the short video above, the PA's endorsement of Hamas and desire to unite with the terror organization have continued throughout the war. In March 2025, Abbas sent Hamas the message that the PA was "ready to protect Hamas":
Director of Palestinian Center for Strategic Studies Muhammad Al-Masri: "Preserving the sole legal representative [the PLO], which is the national identity that unifies [us], is what can now shield and act as a mantle or umbrella to protect Hamas... If Hamas wishes to continue in future political life and be part of our Palestinian social fabric, it needs... to act wisely… [PA] President [Abbas] sent [PLO Executive Committee Secretary] Hussein Al-Sheikh to tour three countries to convey a message that we are ready to protect Hamas."
[Official PA TV News, March 25, 2025]
A few weeks earlier, Abbas' advisor invited Hamas to join the PLO "with their weapons":
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "What we very clearly want from the Hamas Movement is for it to return to the Palestinian national fold, to the PLO… We want everyone with their weapons to join the framework of the PLO."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, March 3, 2025]
In fact, Al-Habbash has been a constant voice throughout the war, calling on Hamas to come "home" to the PLO:
Al-Habbash: "We in the PLO understand that we are like the father or mother of the child. We cannot wish anything but all the best for our people or our Palestinian factions, regardless of what their views are or whether we agree or disagree with them. But we just want all of us to join this one Palestinian home whose name is the PLO so that we all unite against the occupation (i.e., Israel)."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Oct. 18, 2024]
Al-Habbash: "We do not accept the uprooting of any Palestinian or any Palestinian organization, including Hamas. We insist on Hamas remaining and all the Palestinian factions remaining, but in the framework of the Palestinian national legitimacy that is represented by the PLO."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, June 22, 2024]
Other PA/Fatah officials have joined the call:
"The Palestinian National Liberation Movement – ‘Fatah' said that the PLO is the Palestinian people's sole legitimate representative… It… called on all the Palestinian factions to join the PLO and motivate it from within, because this is the best way to end the [Fatah-Hamas] rift."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 27, 2024]
Fatah Spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh: "Hamas is a Palestinian faction, it is part of our political, national, and social fabric, and it must be a political faction like all the factions."
[Al-Hadath TV (Saudi Arabia), YouTube channel, June 10, 2025]
Columnist for the official PA daily, Bassem Barhoum: "Hamas needs to come down from the tree of the disaster-stricken victory and join hands with the PA and PLO. The PLO also could present an initiative that will reassure Hamas that it has a place as a partner in the Palestinian national scene."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 4, 2025]
As the war dragged on, the PA criticized Hamas, not for its Oct. 7 atrocities, but because Hamas launched the war without consulting with the PA, serving Iranian interests instead of "the Palestinian national cause" without care for the destruction the war would bring on the Gaza Strip. Despite blaming Hamas, the PA has not ostracized Hamas. On the contrary, with Abbas' advisor Al-Habbash leading with this message, top PA and Fatah officials repeatedly invited Hamas back into the fold:
Al-Habbash: "If it really is interested in the interests of the Palestinian people and rescuing and defending the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause, [Hamas] must completely leave the arena. This does not mean its political exclusion. The door is open for it to be a partner in Palestinian political life, but based on the same foundations on which the internal Palestinian political activity is based and that were adopted by the PLO: One Palestinian legitimacy that respects the international legitimacy, one weapon, one law, one rule, and one government."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 27, 2025]
Al-Habbash: "[Hamas] must admit that it has failed in its attempts over the last 16 years, return affairs to their owners – to the PLO, and join the ranks of the PLO and the PLO's plan, so that the Palestinian people will unite under one position."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Jan. 22, 2025]
Al-Habbash: "The PLO has not stopped for a moment to attempt and is still attempting to open channels of dialogue, conversation, and understanding with Hamas. The ball is in Hamas' court… we still want to include all the Palestinians under one umbrella, which is the umbrella of the PLO."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, July 29, 2025]
Tulkarem District Governor Abdallah Kmeil: "Come on [Hamas], let's do a partnership, and I'm in favor, and all of us in Fatah are in favor of national unity. National unity is sacred for us. We know, feel, and completely understand that nationalunity is the key to victory. Without unity, we cannot win."
[PA Tulkarem District Governorate, Facebook page, Jan. 18, 2025]
PNC Chairman Rawhi Fattouh slams Hamas for serving Iranian interests and providing Israel with an excuse to destroy Gaza, but stresses the desire to include Hamas and "restore the unity of our people and its institutions under the umbrella of the PLO":
"[Palestinian] National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) Chairman Rawhi Fattouh said that… [this Israeli government] uses as an excuse the haphazard and uncalculated policies and military adventures [of Hamas] that began on Oct. 7, 2023, without consultation or national consensus, which have brought about an unprecedented humanitarian disaster and tragedy on the Gaza Strip...
He emphasized that the time has come torestore the unity of our people and its institutions under the umbrella of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of our people, and to build a true and rational strategy of popular resistance, which is not managed by a policy with regional considerations (refers to Iran -Ed.), and also not managed by narrow reactions or considerations."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 3, 2025]
Itamar Marcus
Source: https://palwatch.org/page/41562
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