Israel swiftly condemned an agreement brokered by China Tuesday which Beijing said would bring Hamas into a “national reconciliation government” for post-war Gaza.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz insisted that “Hamas rule will be crushed” and accused Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah faction signed the deal, of embracing the group whose October 7 attacks triggered the war.
Any involvement by the resistance group in the post-war governance of Gaza is anathema to the United States as well as Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington to address a joint session of Congress and has vowed to continue the Gaza war until Hamas is destroyed.
The diplomatic spat came as Israel hammered Gaza, including the southern city of Khan Yunis, where it had ordered a partial evacuation of civilians.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk, Fatah envoy Mahmud al-Aloul and emissaries from 12 other Palestinian factions.
Hamas and Fatah are long-term rivals and fought a brief but bloody war in 2007 in which the group seized control of Gaza.
Fatah continues to dominate the Palestinian Authority which has limited administrative control over urban areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The text of the deal outlined plans for “a temporary national unity government by agreement of the Palestinian factions” which would “exercise its authority and powers over all Palestinian territories” — the Gaza Strip as well the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
China, which last year brokered a deal restoring relations between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, hailed the agreement as a commitment to “reconciliation”.
But Ka tz said Abbas “embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas”.
He also rejected any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, saying “Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar”.