We’ll repeat atrocities, vows Hamas
A SENIOR Hamas official yesterday called for the ‘annihilation’ of Israel and promised to repeat the horrific attacks of October 7 ‘again and again’.
‘Israel is a country that has no place on our land,’ said the terrorist group’s former foreign minister Ghazi Hamad. ‘We must remove that country.’
His venomous diatribe drew immediate condemnation from British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who tweeted: ‘How can there be peace when Hamas are committed to the eradication of Israel?’
Hamad, 59, continued: ‘The occupation must come to an end... I am talking about all the Palestinian lands.’
Asked on Lebanese TV if that meant the annihilation of Israel, he replied: ‘Yes, of course. The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood and tears... and must be finished.’ He said Israel ‘must be taught a lesson’, adding: ‘We will do this again and again.
‘We are the victims of the occupation. Nobody should blame us for the things we do... everything we do is justified.’
Outrageously, he even claimed: ‘We did not want to harm civilians,’ blaming ‘complications on the ground’.
He spoke last night as Yemen’s Houthis claimed to have launched a large batch of drones at several targets in Israel.
The Houthis vowed to ‘continue carrying out military operations in support of Palestinians, until the Israeli aggression in Gaza stops’.
It was also reported last night that 14 Britons are believed to have been killed in the October 7 attacks. The previous number was 12. A further three Britons are still missing, with the UK authorities urgently working with their Israeli counterparts to establish what has happened to them.
Hamad and his fellow terrorists have made similar statements before – in 2006 he described Israel as a ‘cancer’ that should be ‘wiped from the face of the Earth’.
But the repulsive new comments will only stiffen the resolve of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Paying tribute to the 16 Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza, Mr Netanyahu yesterday vowed to carry on ‘until victory’.
He said: ‘We are in a difficult war. It will be a long war. We have important achievements in it, but also painful losses... I promise you citizens of Israel: we will complete
the job. We will continue until victory.’ The Israel Defence Forces have attacked an enormous total of more than 11,000 targets in Gaza since the war against Hamas began, they confirmed.
It equates to an average of 78 missiles, airstrikes or artillery shells slamming into every square mile of the tiny enclave.
On Tuesday, Israel launched a deadly air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, which killed ‘dozens’ of men, women and children, according to Hamas. More strikes were reported in the camp yesterday.
But Israel defended its action, saying they were targeting senior Hamas military leader Ibrahim Biari, destroying his command centre and a tunnel network.
Last night, however, the UN’s human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on the camp could amount to war crimes.