Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, saying that his defense of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday was “criminal”, according to a Ma’an News Agency report.

Netanyahu said in his speech on Friday that militant Islam has taken over Gaza and that Hamas, acting as a proxy of Iran, kicked the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Ma'an quoted Haniyeh as saying that Netanyahu was making "a desperate attempt to transform the historical occupier into the victim." He added that Netanyahu’s “arrogant” speech would not impact international solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

The Hamas prime minister spoke out against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well for his UN address on Friday, saying he was relinquishing Palestinian rights by seeking recognition for a state in pre-1967 borders.



Elaborating on the main objection to the PA-led bid at the UN, Haniyeh stressed Hamas’s position contending that there could be "no mandate for any Palestinian leadership to infringe on Palestinian national rights, nor is there a mandate for any Palestinian actor to make historic concessions on Palestinian land or the right of the Palestinians, foremost among them the right of return."