A Palestinian Authority (PA) official reportedly predicted that President-elect Donald Trump will “destroy Iran” and that Tehran’s weakening will effectively break down the remaining Hamas terror cells. 

Mohammad Hamdan, secretary-general of the PA’s ruling Fatah Party, reportedly made the comments to the New York Post on Dec. 19 during a meeting between the outlet and other top PA leaders in Nablus, about an hour south of the West Bank city of Jenin, where Western-backed PA forces have launched security operations against armed extremists aligned with Hamas this month. 

The Post first reported the conversation on Monday. 

“We are confronting Hamas’ ideology. Our problem is with Hamas’ link to regimes outside Palestine,” Hamdan told the Post, referencing Iran specifically. 

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“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,” he added. 

A group of more than a dozen extremists stole two PA vehicles and paraded them down the streets of Jenin while waving Hamas and ISIS flags on Dec. 6, according to the Post. 

Since then, PA forces have killed at least three extremists in the West Bank town and have vowed to arrest or “eliminate” the remaining people responsible. 

Fatah suffered a major defeat in the 2006 election, resulting in rival Hamas seizing control of the Gaza Strip, hardening Islamic-extremist rule and launching repeated attacks on Israel.

The tipping point came when Hamas terrorists launched their coordinated attack on southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.  

As Israel has decimated Hamas in the Gaza Strip since then, the PA, which is backed by the U.S. and other Western governments, appears to be positioning itself to resume governance of Gaza once the war ends. 

“Hamas rejects international legitimacy, meaning UN resolutions,” Hamdan said. “The world cannot accept a situation where a party does not accept international resolutions.”

Hamas and other Islamic extremist groups have sown distrust of the PA, accusing it of coordinating closely with Israel on past security raids on Jenin. 

The Jewish state in the past has cracked down on Jenin, which has long been considered a terrorist stronghold. The PA security forces had until recently little presence there until its new security operations this month.

A large banner depicting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas hangs as supporters of the Fatah movement rally ahead of the 60th anniversary of its establishment and in support of the Palestinian Authority’s security operation in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees on Dec. 29, 2024. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)

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At least three PA security force members have been killed, including a captain in the intelligence services, during armed clashes with extremists, The Associated Press reported. The PA has arrested dozens of people.

The Post said the PA leaders they interviewed condemned Israel’s increased settlements in the West Bank but said they supported the Jewish state’s right to exist. 

Hamdan also reportedly told the Post that PA President Mahmoud Abbas – who slammed Israel and the United States before the United Nations General Assembly earlier this year – “still supports realistic relations with the Americans in order to achieve the aspirations of the Palestinians.” However, the secretary-general also argued that failed U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East was responsible for growing Islamic extremism. 

Palestinian security forces march with the body of Ibrahim Qaddoumi, a Palestinian Authority member killed during armed clashes between Palestinian security forces and gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp, on Dec. 27, 2024 in Nablus, West Bank. (Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Look what happened in Syria. First, the U.S. declared the rebels to be al Qaeda, and then [last week] an American delegation visited Syria,” Hamdan told the Post. “And the one before that, when the Americans struck deals with the Taliban in Afghanistan. We as Palestinians believe that most of these extremist Islamic groups are produced by America by its effort to create a new Middle East.” 

On the issue of post-war Gaza governance, one Israeli official told the Post that the PA remained an option but would need to stop “the corruption” and “funding terrorism” on Israeli settlers in the West bank. 

The official acknowledged though that the PA could have “a historically unprecedented opportunity” to return to its control of the Palestinian territories. 

The PA’s opposition to Hamas could provide unique leverage to “participate in day-after talks,” the Israeli official added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Palestinians in Gaza are entering the new year as defenceless and beleaguered as the last.

Israel’s war on the enclave continued into 2024, killing 23,842 people and wounding 51,925 during this year alone, driving the grisly official death toll to 46,376, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel has used siege and starve tactics, as well as scorched earth bombardment, drawing accusations that it is committing genocide, from rights groups and United Nations legal bodies.

All documented Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals, displacement shelters, aid workers, journalists and so-called safe zones, which are often anything but.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli army has imposed a full and suffocating siege in an attempt to starve fighters and push out civilians, in what has been called “ethnic cleansing”.

These tactics violate international law and are creating the conditions to kill a people “in whole or in part”, matching the definition of genocide in the UN’s Genocide Convention, rights groups say.

“This last year has been very dark for us. How can I describe it in any other way? It’s been more than torturous,” said Eman Shaghnoubi, 52, from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.

“We have moved from one humiliation to another,” she added, remarking on the perpetual displacement of Palestinians in the enclave.

Within Gaza

Israel has rendered 34 hospitals in Gaza “nonfunctional” and forced 80 health centres to shut down entirely, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

In the last few days, Israeli forces stormed the only remaining major hospital in Gaza’s devastated north, ejecting staff and patients before setting the medical facility on fire.

Torrential rain is currently lashing the tent villages that stand in place of many of Gaza’s towns and cities, with deaths from hypothermia rising as freezing temperatures continue to flatline.

Shaghnoubi, who has six boys and two girls, said that her children are struggling to survive in the cold and that her small tent does not protect the family from the pouring rain.

“My children sleep on soaked bedding at night,” she told Al Jazeera.

Shereen Abu Nida, 40, also said that she and her four children are coping with hardship due to the terrible living conditions brought on by the war. Worst still, her husband was abducted by Israeli forces about a year ago, leaving her to care for her children all alone.

“I have had to go through this whole year alone, all by myself,” she said, her voice quivering.

Musa Ali Muhammad al-Maghribi, 52, added that his family have little hope for the future.

He said his nine children are ill and he can’t find medication, nor is there enough food or clean water for his family, an ordeal that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face.

“[Israel] has destroyed us,” he told Al Jazeera. “Every day, we just hope to die.”

Netanyahu extends the fight

Despite the extreme hardship, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is showing no sign of halting the onslaught.

Efforts at mediating some form of ceasefire, which have been continuing throughout much of the conflict, have floundered in the face of what many, including United States President Joe Biden in June, have slammed as political self-interest on the part of the Israeli prime minister.

Accusations of exploiting the war on Gaza for personal gain have centred upon Netanyahu’s attempts to deflect from his ongoing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust, which he denies.

In addition, the prime minister’s corruption trial suggests that Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war to distract from accusations of negligence or incompetence during the Hamas-led attack of October 7 2023, which killed 1,139 Israelis.

Charges of opportunism have come from both within Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet, as well as the street, where tens of thousands of people continue to rally in support of a deal that would see the captives taken during the Hamas-led attack released.

International impotence

The international community has failed to halt – or mitigate –  the carnage in Gaza largely due to the US’s unqualified political and military support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

In addition to the more than $20bn in aid provided to Israel since the war began, the US has torpedoed diplomatic efforts within the UN to end the war, including suppressing recent reports of the potential famine under way in northern Gaza.

In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to do all it could to prevent any act that could be considered genocide. Despite this, rights organisations based in Palestine and internationally, including Amnesty, have concluded that Israel is actively embarked upon a campaign of genocide within the Strip.

Similar international action has also been taken against both the Hamas and Israeli leadership. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

Israel claims to have killed Deif in July. Netanyahu and Gallant remain wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In October, Israel defied international pressure and voted to ban the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), widely acknowledged as one of Gaza’s principal lifelines. When the ban comes into effect in late January of next year, Gaza will lose its principal aid agency and with it, much of the network that distributes food, medicine and the infrastructure needed to sustain life.

In December, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for UNRWA’s work to continue and, for the third time, that a ceasefire be immediately reached. Despite this, Israeli strikes on Gaza have continued and the agency’s future remains uncertain.

Palestinians in Gaza such as Abu Nida just hope the war will end soon this coming year.

“This has been the worst year of my life,” said Abu Nida.

“Nobody in the world has lived through the days that we are living through,” she said.