Palestinian children look on as Islamic Jihad militants stand guard following Israel-Hamas truce, in Gaza May 21, 2021. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

If any additional evidence was needed that Gaza’s Hamas rulers are committed to the destruction of Israel — and do not care about enhancing the living conditions of Palestinians (see, for example, here and here) — the latest proof came in a statement released following a meeting on August 29 between Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

Gantz and Abbas’ tete-a-tete was widely reported on, and resulted in an apparent agreement on economic measures designed to help Palestinians in the West Bank, including a loan of 500 million shekels ($155 million) against taxes and tariffs that Jerusalem collects on behalf of and remits to the PA — but that are being withheld in accordance with an Israeli law that counters Ramallah’s  “Pay-for-Slay” policy of providing monthly “salaries” to terrorists and their families.

There was also an agreement on an initiative that gives an additional 16,000 Palestinians the right to work in Israel, as well as the approval of Palestinian construction projects in Area C of the West Bank.

This comes amid the backdrop of the ongoing bitter rivalry between Hamas and the Fatah-controlled PA, which intensified in 2007, when Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in a brutal internecine conflict. Despite this feud, one might assume that Hamas would be willing to set aside its differences with the PA in the context of improving the lives of Palestinians.

But one would be mistaken.

Instead, Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanou described the Gantz-Abbas meeting as a “stab in the back of the Palestinian people and what they have sacrificed,” adding it was a “betrayal of the blood of martyrs.”

Another spokesman for the US-designated terrorist group accused Abbas of “encouraging Arab countries to normalize [relations] with Israel.” This condemnation is rich, given that PA officials slammed several Arab nations when they recently established diplomatic ties with the Jewish state under the auspices of the Abraham Accords.

Echoing Hamas’ sentiments, a representative of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Tariq Silmi, crowed: “The blood of children killed by the army on Gantz’s orders has not yet dried, even as President Abbas meets him in Ramallah.”

The statements from the terrorist groups offer an illuminating glimpse at their true self-serving interest: the destruction of Israel at the expense of millions of Palestinians.

Of course, Hamas has demonstrated its utter lack of concern for civilians on numerous occasions. For example, reconstruction efforts in the coastal enclave, such as those following May’s 11-day Palestinian-initiated war against Israel, have consistently been hampered by Hamas diverting aid from Gazans to its terrorist army — a reality that has forced Israel to implement measures to stop money and supplies from freely flowing into Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas continues to orchestrate deadly riots along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, which began under the pretext of marking the 52nd anniversary of an arson attack on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque by Christian extremist Denis Michael Rohan. While the Australian national was later deemed insane by an Israeli court and admitted to a psychiatric institute, Hamas continues to use the incident to incite violence.

Furthermore, the claim that the Gantz-Abbas meeting is a betrayal of what Palestinians have “sacrificed” is insidious. While so-called “martyrs” may willingly go to their deaths in suicide attacks and stabbing assaults, the same is not true of the civilians that Hamas has a habit of using as human shields. As has been demonstrated by HonestReporting on numerous occasions, the terror group tends to hide its rockets in and underneath residential homes, hospitals, hotels, and even schools.

To be clear, then, Iranian-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad are neither interested in peace, nor in the welfare of their own people.

The author is a writer-researcher for HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.