Senior Hamas official says Oct. 7 massacres revived goal of eradicating Israel

Qatar-based Hamas senior leader, Khaled Mashaal, has dismissed any internationally backed two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

During an interview last week with Kuwaiti podcaster Ammer Taki, Mashaal repeated the Iranian-backed terror group’s ultimate goal of “liberating” the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning eradicating the Jewish state.

Mashaal boasted that Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacres of more than 1,200 Israelis “revived that dream” of wiping Israel off the map. The top Hamas terrorist noted with satisfaction that the genocidal slogan “from the river to sea” was currently being chanted by “American students and in European capitals.”

The senior Hamas official argued that there is “nearly a consensus” among the population in Gaza and the West Bank that no Jewish state can exist between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. In other words, Hamas’ one-state position is at odds with the internationally favored two-state solution.

Some Israeli and international pundits had initially hoped Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 would pave the way toward the establishment of a thriving and peaceful state in the coastal enclave. However, the top Hamas official stressed that the terror group’s long rule in Gaza had offered it “political and administrative cover” to build and expand its terrorism capabilities against Israel.

The interviewer reminded Mashaal, who lives a billionaire lifestyle in exile, that the ongoing war has brought widespread destruction and suffering in the Gaza Strip.

“Everything has been wrecked, thousands have died, and Gazans cannot find food, water, or fuel. The whole infrastructure is destroyed,” Taki said.

Mashaal replied that the Gazan population had been “dying a slow death” due to the 17-year long Israeli and Egyptian blockade, following the Hamas' violent removal of its rival Fatah in Gaza in 2007.

Denying any responsibility by Hamas for the human suffering in Gaza, Mashaal claimed that “the resistance cannot prevent human losses.”

However, Hezbollah, and even some Hamas terrorists in Gaza, have noted that while Mashaal talks about “sacrifice,” he himself continues to live a luxury life in Qatar, far removed from Gaza.

While Hamas is feared in many Middle Eastern capitals, the terror group is still supported by Iran, Qatar and Turkey.

In December, senior Hamas officials met in Turkey to discuss the next phase of the ongoing war against Israel. Mashaal attended the conference virtually from his Qatar residence. Saleh al-Arouri, who was assassinated in Beirut in early January, had also attended the conference remotely.

Mashaal admitted during the interview that Israel’s willingness to release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners from jail in return for the captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, in 2011, convinced Hamas to carry out the mass kidnapping of around 240 Israeli and international hostages on Oct. 7.