Knesset head says Hamas to blame for Gaza deaths

Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein is telling French lawmakers that Hamas is to blame for the deaths of dozens of Palestinians along its border with Gaza this week.

“We’ve been warned for years that Hamas has been planning this kind of attack on the border in order to execute terror activities under the convenient surroundings of manifestations or demonstrations,” Edelstein says during a two-day visit to France.

Edelstein says the protests were “not at all linked” to anger over the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in wide defiance of its European allies.

“Hamas is not just telling people to go out and demonstrate,” he tells the French parliament’s foreign affairs committee. “They are openly saying, ‘You have to march to Tel Aviv, and Haifa and Jerusalem.'”

— AFP