Palestinian prime minister tells CNN why he won't condemn deadly October 7 Hamas attack

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told CNN that he won't condemn the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,000 people on October 7, saying, "support of Israel blindly is a license for killing."

"I hope that (the) United States does not go into that direction," he added.

In a sit-down interview in Ramallah in the West Bank, Shytayyeh told CNN's Becky Anderson why he was unwilling to condemn the attacks:

"The Palestinian story does not start on October 7," Shtayyeh said. "The Palestinian catastrophe has been there for 75 years, and we have been crying loud, and we have been shouting loud and clear (that) we need a solution."

He went on to say that "condemnation should be (for the) killing of every civilian, every human being that does not deserve to die. We should condemn that."  

Shtayyeh claimed that the sentiment of the Israeli people is one of revenge.

"Israel is not under existential threat, and I think that the White House, (President Joe Biden) should call for the parties to sit down and work together (for) a peaceful solution," he said.

Visits by world leaders to Tel Aviv in support of Israel — a reference in part to Biden's visit Thursday and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visits in the last week, among others — have "given the greenest of the green light for Israel to continue its attack on Gaza," Shtayyeh said.

International support should be for peace, not aggression, he said.

The prime minister called on a collective international effort led by the United Nations Security Council to end the war.

"What you need is a collective international effort on the side of the members of the Security Council to take the lead in ending the conflict and finding a solution," he said.