Hamas, Islamic Jihad condemn Paris attacks

Two Palestinian Islamist terror groups on Saturday condemned the Paris attacks that killed at least 128 people.

Senior figures in Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and is considered by the US and EU to be a “terrorist” group, and Islamic Jihad criticized the terrorist killings that rocked the French capital late Friday.

Dr. Bassem Naim, head of the Council of International Relations for Hamas, told AFP the group condemned “the acts of aggression and barbarity,” while Islamic Jihad called it a crime against innocent people.

The jihadist Islamic State group, an Islamist movement that controls much of Syria and Iraq, said it carried out the Paris attacks.

Naim, a former health minister in Gaza, said he condemned the “barbarity” of the attack in France and hoped for “stability and security” there.

He denied the attack had anything to do with Islam.

“Terrorism has no religion,” he said.

Nafez Azzam, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, told AFP: “We condemn this crime in Paris against innocent people, this message of hatred.”

“Islam rejects indiscriminate killing,” he added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regularly equates the two Palestinian movements with IS.

In September, he told the UN General Assembly “when it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas,” he said, using an alternate acronym for IS.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which openly call for the destruction of the Jewish state, are designated as terrorist groups by Israel, the EU and the US.

The Islamist movements regularly fire rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, and are responsible for dozens of terror attacks against Israeli civilians and assaults on security forces.

Protests in support of France were expected in both Israel and the Palestinian territories later Saturday.