Hamas official tries to walk back call for Palestinians abroad to kill Jews

Senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad attempts to walk back comments he made last week, in which he called on members of the Palestinian diaspora to kill Jews around the world.

He says in a statement posted on the terror group’s website that he supports “Hamas’s consistent, adopted policy of limiting its resistance to the Zionist occupation that usurps Palestine’s land and defiles its holy sites.”

He adds: “Our resistance to this usurping entity will continue in all of its forms whether that is armed or popular peaceful struggle.”

Hammad, a Hamas politburo member known for his fiery rhetoric, made the remarks in a speech at a protest on the Israel-Gaza border on Friday.

“Our patience has run out. We are on the verge of exploding. If this siege is not undone, we will explode in the face of our enemies, with God’s permission and glory,” Hammad said, referring to Israeli restrictions on the movement of people and goods between Israel and Gaza. “The explosion is not only going to be in Gaza, but also in the [West] Bank and abroad, if God wills. But our brothers [in the diaspora] are still preparing. They are trying to prepare. They are warming up. A long time has passed with them warming up. All of you 7 million Palestinians abroad, enough of the warming up. You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing, if God permits. Enough of the warming up,” he added.

Israel has said that it maintains the restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza to prevent Hamas and other terror groups from importing weaponry.

— Adam Rasgon