Palestine Official Slams Hamas for 'Sending Children’ to Gaza Protests

Supreme sharia judge for the Mahmoud Abbas's adviser on religious and Islamic affairs Mahmoud al-Habash criticized the Hamas leadership for sending children into the protest zone where Israeli sniper bullets have killed scores of people, including the elderly, children and journalists.

"The Marches of Return gamble with the lives of children and women, which does not serve Palestine," he said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

According to al-Habash, "the children are being sent to their death facing occupation soldiers, this does not serve Palestine.''

Reportedly speaking in the presence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the advisor noted that "the leadership in Gaza is having a good time, when what it is meant to do is visit tents set by those who mourn and funerals. They gamble on the life of the young, when they have many agendas and wish to revive themselves with the blood of our people."

The words of al-Habash were met with praise from Israel and fierce criticism from Hamas.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri reacted to the al-Habash comments, tweeting: "these statements reveal that the PA is against all resistance, peaceful and non-peaceful [those who say such things] must know Gaza will not live under the boots of the Israeli occupation as others do."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Arab media spokesman Ofir Gendelman praised al-Habash on social media, claiming that the Palestinian official is "saying things as they are."