Hamas leader, visiting South Africa, supports continued terror against Israelis

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, while speaking during a visit to South Africa, voiced his firm support for continued terror attacks against Israeli citizens.

By World Israel News Staff

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared that the Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis, or the “the Jerusalem intifada” as he termed it, would persist. Speaking at a government-endorsed rally in South Africa on Wednesday, Mashaal told a crowd of several hundred supporters waving Hamas flags in Cape Town that “the uprisings shall continue until freedom is achieved and the land is for Palestine and its people,” AFP reported.

He compared the Palestinian war against Israel to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. “South Africa, you have achieved your freedom, the people of Palestine are aspiring to attain their freedom,” he said, according to AFP. “Do not expect that they should stop with the uprising, do not expect that they should stop with the resistance.”

Hamas’s spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, later repeated Mashaal’s threats, saying that day’s terror attacks in Jerusalem and Hebron “proved that all the tricks used to disrupt the intifada are doomed to failure.” The rally capped off a controversial visit to South Africa by the terror leader and his cohorts, who were invited by the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party, for a three-day visit to South Africa that sparked strong criticism from Israel.

President Jacob Zuma reportedly exchanged gifts with Mashaal on Monday and signed a letter expressing support for Palestinians. The meeting came on the same day that Hamas issued a new directive to its members to carry out suicide bombings against Israelis. The Israeli foreign ministry on Monday summoned South Africa’s deputy ambassador to protest Mashaal’s visit, which it said gives “a tailwind and encouragement for terror, and blatantly and rudely ignores the position of the international community, which views Hamas as a terror organization.”

The European Union and the United States have blacklisted the terror organization, which rules the Gaza Strip.