Hamas says Gaza is ‘Auschwitz of the 21st century’

Hamas was responding to Netanyahu’s speech on Holocaust Remembrance Day, during which he emphasized showing force and eliminating fanatical elements as an essential lesson of the Holocaust.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In an official statement, Hamas asserted that Gaza is the “Auschwitz of the 21st century.”

The statement was released in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the Yad Vashem Remembrance Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

During the speech, Netanyahu emphasized showing force and eliminating fanatical elements as an essential lesson of the Holocaust.

He also compared the terror group that invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 people, took 250 captives, and carried out a campaign of torture and sexual violence to the Nazis.

Netanyahu recounted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, viewing footage of Hamas’s atrocities on October 7 and remarking, “They are exactly like the Nazis.”

He continued, “They [Hamas] are exactly like the Nazis. Like Hitler. Like Haman. They desire to kill and destroy all of the Jews,” said Netanyahu. “It’s not going to happen. We are going to completely destroy these Hamas monsters.”

In Hamas’s statement, they insisted that they were the victims of Israel, despite the invasion of October 7, and wrote, “Those who weep for the victims of Nazism are now the masters of genocide in our time.”

Hamas added that “Netanyahu, who repeats ‘never again’ regarding the Holocaust, is the very one enacting one of the most horrific acts of genocide in our days.”

“This genocide needs no ovens — only modern Western weaponry — and is carried out in front of the entire world,” the statement continued.

“Fighting against this Zionist genocidal project is not only a legitimate right — it is a human duty,” Hamas’s statement concluded.

Hamas was responding to Netanyahu’s stated commitment to continue putting military pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and to destroy them as a political and military power in Gaza.

Netanyahu said, “I give you my word: the military pressure on Hamas will not let up. We are committed to bringing every captive home. We will defeat Hamas and stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. We will confront extremist regimes — and we will act in time. That is the core lesson of the Holocaust, and it is the lesson my father taught me, having witnessed the West’s silence in the face of the Nazi threat.”