“Actual resistance against the Zionist entity is the need of the hour,” said Hamas leader Khaled Mashal.
By World Israel News Staff
One of Hamas’ highest-ranking leaders called on Wednesday for Palestinians to engage in suicide bombings, stating that a return to Intifada-era terror is the most effective way to defeat Israel.
During a speech in Turkey, Khaled Mashal was quoted by Sky News Arabia as saying that Hamas is planning to “return to [suicide] operations.”
Mashal encouraged a mass uprising of Arab citizens of Israel, along with those who live in Palestinian Authority-administered areas in Judea and Samaria, to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.
“Actual resistance against the Zionist entity is the need of the hour,” he said.
Israel’s anti-terror raids in Judea and Samaria and the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip “can only be addressed by open conflict,” Mashaal said.
“They are fighting us with open conflict, and we are confronting them with open conflict.”
In what appeared to be a reference to the assassination of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Mashal said that “the enemy has opened the conflict on all fronts, seeking us all, whether we fight or not.”
“I repeat my call to everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the actual resistance against the Zionist entity,” Mashal added.
He also urged students in universities throughout the world to stage mass anti-Israel protests.
“With the return of the academic year and the approach of the first anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation [October 7th massacres], there must be a preparation at all fronts…to send a message to Washington and the world to stop the aggression on Gaza,” he concluded.
The Hamas leader is a staunch opponent of an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict that would give Palestinians an independent homeland, with Israel remaining intact.
Rather, Mashal has stressed that all of Israel, Gaza, and Judea and Samaria should become a Palestinian state.
“We reject the two-state solution idea. Our goal is clear, a Palestinian state from the river to the sea, from north to south,” Mashal said.