Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli government was interested in escalating the tension in the south in order to divert attention from the socioeconomic protest in Israel.
"In Israel there are protests on domestic issues and this pressured the Netanyahu government a great deal. Therefore an escalation in the security situation would have shifted the attention.
We support a return to calm and I am glad that our brothers in Hamas and the other factions realized the message and decided not to play into Israel's hands and decided to keep the calm."
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