Edited sentence: A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that the Syrian government protect the Palestinians.Bardaweel's claims are at odds with repeated leaks by his group showing that they were prepared to evacuate Syria and had already reduced their presence there.Fatah Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki called military operations in Latakia "very worrisome" on 15 August 2011 amid UNRWA reported that thousands of Palestinians had been forced to flee from a major refugee camp on the outskirts of the Syrian city.In 2011, a Hamas spokesman said he was unaware of the reports and denied that the uprising had affected Hamas' position in Syria or elsewhere.Later however, Hamas's Prime minister in Gaza Ismail Haniya voiced support for the Syrian opposition, though Salah al-Bardaweel added that this did not mean severance of ties with the government