Unrest has also spread in the occupied West Bank, where protests have been held in solidarity with Gaza and 27 Palestinians have been killed in clashes since Saturday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Abbas to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ attack on Israel, calling his silence so far “shameful”.
The conflict has prompted Netanyahu to set aside his political differences for now and form an emergency government including centrist former defense minister Benny Gantz for the duration of the crisis.
“Israel comes before anything else”, Gantz wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, while far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote that he “welcomes unity, now we must win”.
Dozens of independent UN experts on Thursday condemned Hamas’s “horrible crimes” and also charged that Israel’s bombing of Gaza “amounts to collective punishment”.
“There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces,” the experts said in a joint statement.
“This is completely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime.”