'Nobody should blame us'

Hamas official vows multiple attacks on Israel

"We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times."

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad in the interview with Lebanese channel LBC on October 24. Photo: Screenshot/X
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad in the interview with Lebanese channel LBC on October 24. Photo: Screenshot/X

(TIMES OF ISRAEL) – A senior member of Hamas has hailed the systematic slaughter of civilians in Israel on October 7, vowing in an interview that if given the chance, the Palestinian terror group will repeat similar assaults many times in the future until Israel is exterminated.

The remarks by Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, were swiftly shared online by Israeli and Western officials as a vindication of the Jewish state’s resolve to destroy the terror group’s military capabilities in its ongoing war in Gaza, and as proof that no ceasefire can be reached until the threat of additional murderous attacks is removed.

“Israel is a country that has no place on our land,” Hamad said in an interview with Lebanese TV channel LBC on October 24, which was translated and published last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “We must remove it because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation. We are not ashamed to say this.”

In the interview, Hamad said that Israel’s existence is “illogical” and that it must be wiped off all “Palestinian lands”, a term the terror group uses to mean the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.

When asked whether this meant the complete annihilation of Israel, Hamad replied: “Yes, of course.

“We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times. The Al-Aqsa Deluge [the name Hamas gave its October 7 onslaught] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth,” Hamad continued. “Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.”

He also repeated the false assertion that Hamas had not intended to harm civilians, but that there were “complications” on the ground.

“We are the victims of the occupation. Period. Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October one-millionth, everything we do is justified,” Hamad said.

Some 3000 terrorists led by Hamas burst across the border from Gaza into Israel by land, air and sea on October 7, killing some 1400 people and seizing at least 245 hostages, under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.

The vast majority of those killed were civilians – including babies, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 people were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.

Israel has responded with a large-scale military offensive in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas’s infrastructure, and has vowed to eliminate the entire terror group, which has ruled the Strip since taking over in a bloody coup in 2007.

As the images of destruction and civilian casualties in Gaza have proliferated, Israel has come under growing calls for a ceasefire, which it has dismissed as long as its goal of crippling Hamas hasn’t been achieved.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly appeared to back Israel’s stance last week, posting a clip of Hamad’s interview on X and writing: “How can there be peace when Hamas are committed to the eradication of Israel? This is an official from Hamas committing to repeat the atrocities from 07/10 again and again.”

US presidential candidate Nikki Haley said: “Believe terrorists when they tell you who they are. This is why there should be no ceasefire until Hamas is destroyed.”

 

read more:
comments