GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to classify Hamas as terrorist in statements during Fatah’s Advisory Council meeting at the presidential palace in Ramallah Dec. 9. In his statement broadcast on the Palestinian Satellite Channel Dec. 10, Abbas said, “Those [Hamas] are part of our people, and I will not allow anyone to bad-mouth them.”

On Dec. 7, the United States failed to garner two-thirds of the votes at the UN General Assembly in favor of a resolution to condemn Hamas and other organizations in the Gaza Strip for launching rockets against Israel. The draft received the approval of 87 states, 57 others opposed it, 33 states abstained from voting and 16 states were not present. This is in reference to the 400 missiles that Hamas and other resistance factions launched against Israel on Nov. 12-13, in the wake of an infiltration that a special covert Israeli unit implemented Nov. 11 in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. As a result, Nour Baraka, a prominent leader in Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, was assassinated, an Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers from the Israeli force were wounded.

The Palestinian presidency had called on the international community to vote against the US resolution to condemn Hamas, according to the official Wafa news agency Dec. 6. The agency said that the Palestinian presidency contacted Arab and Muslim countries — such as Kuwait, Indonesia and Turkey — and friendly ones to foil the US resolution by calling on them to vote against it.

In a Dec. 7 press statement, Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, praised the efforts of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to foil the US resolution through the Palestinian delegate at the UN, Riyad Mansour.