Terror group Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar said that Israel has no right to exist during an interview with Britain’s Sky News on Sunday, adding that Hamas’ strategy is to attack “most of the overcrowded area in the civilian society” in Israel.
When explicitly asked if Israel has the right to exist, al-Zahar responded, “No. Why? Why? You are coming from America and you take my house. You came from Britain and you took my brother’s house. This is a settlement. You are not a citizen. We are the owners of this. This is an Arabic area. This is well-known as an Islamic area, well-known.”
During the interview with Sky’s Middle East correspondent, Mark Stone, al-Zahar spoke from his home in Gaza about Hamas’ “victory” in the wake of the ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist organization, crediting the group’s strategy of attacking densely populated areas.
Al-Zahar told Stone that “the new element…is the degree of the resistance movement, particularly in Gaza, to attack the Israeli targets at very important points, including most of the overcrowded area in the civilian society. So for how long the Israeli will accept that, I think this is the main issue.”
Prior to the truce agreement, Hamas and similar terror groups fired more than 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israel over 11 days. Stone questioned al-Zahar’s methods, noting that firing rockets and missiles into civilian areas is a war crime.
The terrorist leader rejected the accusation, claiming, “No single rocket was sent from a civilian area. We [fired] most of the rockets from the border.”
“That’s not true, though, is it? Because we’ve seen video of rockets being fired from within the built-up area of Gaza City at Israeli communities,” Stone challenged.
“This is not against Israeli communities. This is against Israeli occupation,” al-Zahar said. “This is against Israeli aggression.”
During the barrage of rocket fire, one Israeli soldier and 12 civilians were killed, including a 5-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, The Times of Israel reported.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said around 243 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and teens, and nearly 2,000 individuals were wounded. The Israeli army noted that a number of the Gaza causalities were due to Hamas rockets accidentally landing in Gaza.
When asked about potential peace talks with Israel, the terror-group founder called the question irrelevant, adding that he would only address “practical” questions.
Al-Zahar did say he would be willing to talk with President Joe Biden.
According to the terrorist organization’s official charter, “peace initiatives … are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.”
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it,” The Covenant of Hamas preamble states, according to Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Law Library.
“[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement…Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam. There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility,” the covenant states.
