Hamas leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, said the Palestinian group will rise from the ashes “like a phoenix”, despite heavy losses during a year-long war with Israel, and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.
A year after the Hamas attack that triggered the current war, Meshaal framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative that spans 76 years, going back to what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” when many were displaced during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of the State of Israel.
“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under general leader Yahya Sinwar, said in an interview with Reuters.
“We go through phases in which we lose martyrs (victims) and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit resurfaces, like the phoenix, thank God.”
Meshaal, who survived a 1997 Israeli assassination attempt with a poison injection, and was general leader of Hamas from 1996 to 2017, said the Islamic militant group is still capable of mounting ambushes against Israeli troops.
Hamas fired four missiles at Gaza on Monday morning (7), the anniversary of the Hamas attack on southern Israel that triggered the most recent war. All were intercepted.
“We have lost some of our ammunition and weapons, but Hamas is still recruiting young people and continues to manufacture a significant part of its ammunition and weapons,” Meshaal said, without providing details.
Meshaal remains influential in Hamas after playing a crucial role in its leadership for nearly three decades and is now widely seen as its diplomatic face.
His comments appear intended to signal that the group will continue to fight, regardless of its losses, say Middle East analysts.
“Overall, I would say (Hamas) is still alive and kicking and … will probably return at some point in Gaza,” said Joost R. Hiltermann, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the International Crisis Group. .
According to him, Israel has not defined a plan for Gaza when the war ends, and this could allow Hamas to re-establish itself, although perhaps not with as much strength or in the same way.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on Meshaal’s remarks.
Time bomb
Israel began its latest offensive against Hamas after about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 last year, according to Israeli records.
Much of the Gaza Strip was destroyed and around 42,000 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel says Hamas no longer exists as an organized military structure and has been reduced to guerrilla tactics. At least a third of Palestinian deaths in Gaza, around 17,000 people, are Hamas fighters, according to Israeli officials. Around 350 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza.
Meshaal said he sees no prospects for peace while Netanyahu’s government is in power. Israel blames Hamas, whose founding charter calls for Israel’s destruction, for the failure to achieve peace.
“As long as the (Israeli) occupation exists, the region will continue to be a ticking time bomb,” Meshaal said.
This content was originally published in Hamas will rise “like a phoenix” from the ashes, says leader in exile on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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