Exclusive | Palestinian leader predicts Trump will destroy Iran and crumble Hamas
NABLUS, West Bank — A top Palestinian leader told The Post he expects that President-elect Donald Trump will “destroy Iran,” which will cause remaining Hamas influence to crumble.Hamas has been decimated by Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank the terror group has been rising up against the Palestinian Authority, which is run by the rival Fatah party.The Palestinian Authority is supported by western governments including the US, and Hamas and other Islamist groups accuse it of cozying up to Israel.Palestinian security forces have been cracking down in particular at refugee camps in the West Bank town of Jenin, where more than a dozen extremist gunmen stole two PA government vehicles earlier this month, parading them around while waving Hamas and ISIS flags.“We are confronting Hamas’ ideology.Our problem is with Hamas’ link to regimes outside Palestine,” Mohammad Hamdan, Secretary General of the PA’s ruling Fatah party told The Post, referencing Iran in particular.But Hamdan said he expects Trump’s return to the White House will lead to the jihadists’ defeat.“We see that Trump and the ruling government in Israel are planning to destroy Iran, so Hamas [followers] will have no other choice than to become Palestinian,” the Fatah leader predicted.
The PA has killed at least three extremist militants in Jenin since the Dec.6 incident as it pledges to either arrest or eliminate all participants.The Post spoke with Hamdan and several other top PA leaders in Nablus, about an hour south of Jenin, on Dec.
19.Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after defeating Fatah in a 2006 election.The terror group’s brutal rule included an Islamist crackdown in the Palestinian territory and repeated incursions into Israel.
It culminated with the Oct.7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which terrorists killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage.Fatah, the US and Israel have a shared goal in fighting Hamas, which includes the destruction of...