Hamas will only be disarmed if Israel is — Mashaal

Hamas’s political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal reacts to Israeli demands that his movement be disarmed.

“No one will force us to lay down our weapons,” he says at a press conference in Qatar, but adds that Hamas has “two conditions” for demilitarization: the end of the occupation and of settlements, and the disarming of Israel.

He claims the hundreds of rockets — over 1,500 — fired by Hamas into towns and cities all over Israel, as well as the five attempted attacks through cross-border tunnels, are not aimed at civilian targets.

“Our fatalities are civilians. Israel’s fatalities are soldiers,” he says. “Netanyahu and Ya’alon have failed in Gaza.”

Channel 2’s Ehud Ya’ari says the speech is designed to sound like a victory speech, but doesn’t quite come across that way.