A senior Hamas official openly admitted that his terrorist group will never accept a two-state solution and boasted that its October 7 attack demonstrated that it is possible to expand Palestinian territory and eliminate Israel.
Khaled Mashal, a key figure who helped run the terrorist organization from Qatar, said last week in a videotaped interview with Kuwaiti podcaster Amar Taki that Gazans and Israelis cannot coexist, a sentiment he said , became very clear after October 7.
“I would like to say two things about the two-state solution. First, we have nothing to do with the two-state solution,” the 67-year-old terrorist said in a translation provided by MEMRI TV. “We reject this notion, because it means you would get a promise for a [Palestinian] State, but it is required to recognize the legitimacy of the other State, which is the Zionist entity.
“This is unacceptable,” he added. “We demand to be liberated, get rid of the occupation and have our independence and our state.”
Khaled Mashal, a senior Hamas official, touted his terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre as the first step in erasing Israel. An Israeli soldier walks past a house destroyed in the October 7 attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. AP
Mashal also acknowledged that Hamas was never an organization that would simply rule Gaza after coming to power in 2007, but rather one that would destroy the Jewish state.
The Hamas leader said his group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people, mainly civilians, was a clear indicator that his group could do just that.
“I believe that the dream and hope for Palestine from the river to the sea and from the north to the south has been renewed,” he said, referencing a song calling for the elimination of Israel. “This has also become a slogan chanted in the United States and in Western capitals by American and Western audiences.
In the October 7 attacks, more than 1,200 people died and around 240 were kidnapped. AP Families of those held captive in Gaza have called for a ceasefire to free their loved ones. REUTERS
“The Palestinian consensus – or almost a consensus – is that we will not give up our right to Palestine in its entirety, from the beginning. [Jordan] river to [Mediterranean] sea, and from Rosh HaNikra to Eilat or the Gulf of Aqaba,” Mashal added.
“I believe that October 7 has reinforced this conviction, reduced disagreements and turned the idea of liberating Palestine from the river to the sea into a realistic idea that has already begun,” he said. “Is not something [merely] be expected or expected. It is part of the plan, part of the agenda, and we are at its threshold, Allah willing.”
Mashal’s firm rejection of any peace between Israelis and Hamas suggests that the war in Gaza will not end until one of the groups is destroyed.
Smoke rises over Rafah as fighting continues in Gaza. AFP via Getty Images
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas, laying siege to Gaza and already killing more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to the local terrorist-run Health Ministry. Entire villages in Gaza have been virtually destroyed in the fighting.
Meanwhile, Mashal and his Hamas cronies live in luxury in Qatar while his people languish in poverty and are treated as human shields.
Mashal alone is worth more than $4 billion, according to the Israeli government.
A Palestinian woman cries as she holds an injured child in Gaza, where the death toll has reportedly surpassed 25,000. AP
In particular, it has been a target of Israeli forces in the past.
In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to assassinate Mashal by having elite agents of Israel’s Mossad spray poison into his ear as he walked the streets of Amman, Jordan.
Then-US President Bill Clinton, desperate to keep Middle East peace talks alive, eventually helped convince Netanyahu to provide the antidote to the dying Mashal, who ended up recovering, according to Time magazine.
Netanyahu himself has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution, most recently denying the possibility of Palestinian sovereignty on Saturday despite US pressure for that outcome.
“I will not compromise full Israeli security control over all territory west of Jordan, and this is contrary to a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The prime minister reiterated that the IDF will not stop its airstrikes and advances in Gaza until the more than 130 hostages are freed and Hamas is eradicated.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn