Mashaal claims Hamas will rise ‘like a phoenix’ despite Gaza battlefield losses
Senior terror leader warns of ‘ticking time bomb’ in Mideast ‘as long as the occupation exists’; Hamas military spox hails ‘successful’ Oct. 7 attack, ‘humiliating defeat’ of IDF
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has said the Palestinian terror group would rise “like a phoenix” from the ashes despite heavy losses during a year of war with Israel, and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.
One year after the devastating Hamas attack that triggered the war, the Qatar-based Mashaal framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative spanning 76 years, dating back to what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” of the Jewish state’s founding in 1948.
“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Mashaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters in an interview.
“We go through phases where we lose martyrs (victims) and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix, thanks to God.”
Mashaal, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997 after he was injected with poison and was overall Hamas leader from 1996-2017, said the Islamist terror group was still able to mount ambushes against Israeli troops.
Hamas also fired four missiles at central Israel on Monday morning, the anniversary of the October 7 atrocities, in which Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized 251 hostages.
“We lost part of our ammunition and weapons, but Hamas is still recruiting young men and continues to manufacture a significant portion of its ammunition and weapons,” said Mashaal, without providing details.
Mashaal remains influential in Hamas because he has played a crucial role in its leadership for almost three decades, and is widely seen now as its diplomatic face. His comments appear intended as a signal that the terrorist group will fight on whatever its losses, Middle East analysts said.
“Overall I would say [Hamas is] alive and kicking still and … will probably come back at some point in Gaza,” said Joost R. Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa Program Director of the International Crisis Group.
He said Israel had not spelled out a plan for Gaza when the war ends, and this could allow Hamas to re-establish itself although perhaps not with such strength or in the same form.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined comment on Mashaal’s remarks.
“As long as the occupation exists, the region remains a ticking time bomb,” Mashaal declared.
Israel withdrew all troops and civilians from Gaza in 2005; Hamas ousted the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas two years later in a violent coup.
Also Monday, the spokesman of Hamas’s military wing, known only as Abu Obeida, gave a speech praising the attack the terror group carried out one year ago, and the unity of the fronts opened by Iran-backed proxy organizations across the Middle East against Israel over the past 12 months. He further called for “military, financial and logistical support” as well as media campaigns against Israel.
Abu Obeida also discussed the hostages still in Gaza, and said that it would be “unreasonable” for Hamas to kill them, but that dozens of them may be held in captivity for a long time and may never be returned.
“The fate of the hostages is tied to the actions of their government,” Abu Obeida said. “The longer [the military operation in Gaza] persists, the greater the risk to the hostages.”
Abu Obeida boasted that October 7 was “the most professional and successful commando operation in the modern era,” and added that it inflicted a “humiliating defeat” on the IDF. He made the baseless allegation that it was a “preemptive strike” to avert a major operation planned by Israel against Hamas in Gaza.
The spokesman claimed that October 7 was a response to alleged Israeli violations at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem, the expansion of settlements, abuses against Palestinian security prisoners, and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
He addressed Hezbollah, saying: “We are confident in your steadfastness and courage in inflicting heavy losses on the forces of the Zionist enemy, as the martyr Hassan Nasrallah promised.”
The terror leader also mentioned Maher al-Jazi, the Jordanian citizen who carried out a shooting attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing on September 8 in which three Israeli citizens were killed, saying that he opened an “authentic Jordanian front” in addition to the existing ones.
Abu Obeida lashed at the US for supporting Israel, and claimed that Islamist terror operatives in the Gaza Strip, from Hamas and other factions, “persist in their steadfastness and their heroic fighting in every inch of the Strip.”
Commenting on the recent killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, Abu Obeida said that “the policy of assassinations of our leaders is a good outcome, a sign of victory for us, and a source of regret and disappointment for the aggressors.”
“A leader is succeeded by 10, and a fighter by a thousand,” he added. “This land produces resistance fighters as it produces olives.”