Senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad contracts coronavirus

Senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the terror group announces.

Hammad is widely considered to be a hardliner even by the standards of Hamas, which avowedly seeks to destroy Israel. In an infamous speech in July 2019, he called for members of the Palestinian diaspora to kill Jews wherever they could.

“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.

Several Hamas officials have been infected with the novel coronavirus, including deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri. All have survived the virus without any reported complications.

— Aaron Boxerman