Hamas’s Mashaal: Gaza is destroyed, but this is part of ‘march toward liberation’

Senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal told a Beirut conference yesterday that the Palestinian national movement entered a new phase after October 7, and “national consensus” is needed to transition smoothly to the new reality, according to the Iranian state-owned Alam network.

The Doha-based former Hamas political chief called for a postwar order in Gaza that includes all Palestinian movements. “We will not allow any vacuum in Gaza, and Hamas cannot be excluded in any way,” he says.

In an interview with Sky News Arabic today, Mashaal acknowledges the damage wrought to the territory in the aftermath of the October 7 attack. “Gaza is now destroyed,” he says. “Every fair-minded person sees that this is absolutely true.”

However, he says, this is all part of the “march of our people toward liberation.”