Gaza City/Tel Aviv - The Hamas movement on Monday distanced
itself from comments made by one of its members calling on
Palestinians around the world to kill Jews.
"These statements do not reflect the official positions of the
movement and its adopted and consistent policies," read a
statement released by the radical Islamist movement.
It added that "our struggle is with the occupation which is occupying
our land and desecrating our sanctity, not conflict with the Jews in
the world or with Judaism as a religion."
Hamas has previously condemned attacks on Jews in their places of
worship, the statement added.
Fathi Hammad, a member of the Hamas movement's political bureau,
addressed Palestinians abroad on Friday, saying: "You have Jews
everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of
slaughter and killing, if God permits."
Hammad was speaking at a "March of Return" protest against Israel by
the Gaza border.
He told demonstrators in Gaza that new factories had been opened to
manufacture explosive belts and that each protester could take one
and cross the border to Israel in order to kill Jews.
The UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process,
Nickolay Mladenov, condemned the remarks.
A dangerous, repugnant and inciteful statement! It must to be clearly condemned by ALL. There can be no complacency with such rhetoric. Ever! #UN #NeverAgain https://t.co/kX4kJRPETT
— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) July 15, 2019
"A dangerous, repugnant and inciteful statement! It must to be
clearly condemned by ALL. There can be no complacency with such
rhetoric. Ever!" he tweeted on Monday.
Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef sent a letter to Hammad criticizing his
choice of words.
"I understand your anger at Israeli occupation crimes against our
people, but the language of explosive belts is not the language of
politicians, and talking about killing Jews is a violation of
religion and morals and even contrary to what is stated in Hamas
political documents," he said.
Some 55 Palestinians were injured in clashes during protests at the
Gaza's northern border on Friday. More than half were injured by live
ammunition used by Israeli soldiers.