Hamas condemns Abbas's call to hand over the resistance's weapons.

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's call before the United Nations General Assembly to hand over the weapons of resistance, asserting that the only way to confront the Israeli occupation's projects of extermination and displacement is through national consensus on a comprehensive struggle program.

The movement stated in a statement published on Thursday evening that resistance is "a national and moral responsibility that derives its legitimacy from our steadfast Palestinian people, and from their natural right to resist occupation, as recognized by international laws and conventions. We absolutely reject the President's alignment with the false Zionist narrative that attempts to distort it by accusing it of targeting civilians."

The statement emphasized that "all attempts to impose guardianship over our people and their will will fail." Hamas viewed the Palestinian Authority President's assertion that the movement would have no role in governance as an infringement on the legitimate right of our Palestinian people to determine their own fate and choose their rulers, and as an unacceptable submission to external dictates and projects.

The movement stressed that "the weapons of resistance cannot be touched as long as the occupation is entrenched on our land and in the hearts of our people, and we condemn the President's demand to hand them over, especially in light of what our people in the Gaza Strip are facing from a brutal extermination war, and the crimes and barbaric assaults committed by armed settlers and the occupation army against unarmed civilians in the occupied West Bank."

Abbas called on Hamas and other resistance factions to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian Authority, and he reiterated his rejection of what the movement did on October 7, 2023, in targeting Israeli civilians and taking them hostage, according to his statement.

The Palestinian President delivered his speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly via video after the United States refused to grant him a visa to participate in the assembly's proceedings in New York.

Since October 2023, Israel - with American support - has been waging a war of extermination against the residents of the Gaza Strip, involving killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring international calls to stop the war and orders from the International Court of Justice in this regard.

The extermination has resulted in more than 65,000 martyrs and 167,000 injured, with 440 Palestinians, including 147 children, having died due to starvation, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.