Hamas leader prays for annihilation of Jews, Americans

The deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, top Hamas official Sheik Ahmad Bahr, has called for the annihilation of Jews and Americans alike in a sermon broadcast on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV.

According to a translation provided by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), during the August 10 sermon, Bahr told his disciples that “if the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty incumbent upon every Muslim, male or female.”

A woman doesn’t need permission from her husband, nor a “servant his master’s permission,” in order to engage in jihad, Bahr told his flock. This, he says, is “in order to annihilate those Jews.”

In a second clip Bahr is seen praying, “Oh, Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters,” and “the Americans and their supporters.” In an apparent call to ensure that all of Hamas’s perceived enemies are annihilated, he prays, “Oh, Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.”

The Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament in 2006 elections.