At Sunday morning’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed that the kidnappers of three Israeli boys are members of Hamas, with which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently created a Palestinian unity government.
“This morning I can say what I was unable to say yesterday before the extensive wave of arrests of Hamas members in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said.
“Those who perpetrated the abduction of our youths were members of Hamas – the same Hamas that Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] made a unity government with; this has severe repercussions.”
Indeed, as reported by Israel National News, the official Facebook page Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has posted a cartoon comparing the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers to rats.
“We are currently focusing all of our efforts on bringing the abductees back home,” he stated. “Before coming here, I spoke again with the families, and I embrace and encourage them from here, from the Cabinet table, and I know that I speak for all parts of the nation.”
Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/FLASH90
In a statement to the press Sunday afternoon Netanyahu elaborated on the hostile nature of the new Palestinian unity government . ” I believe that the dangers of that pact now should be abundantly clear to all. We have seen since the signing of that pact an increase in terrorist activity emanating from the West Bank. We have seen Hamas strengthen its presence there, and this increases the likelihood that Hamas will take control of the Palestinian Authority, precisely as it did in Gaza. This will not advance peace; it will advance terror.”