Hamas: If Gazans die from coronavirus, Israelis will be unable to breathe

Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, threatened over the weekend that if Gazans start dying as a result of not having enough ventilators, Hamas will make six million Israeli settlers unable to breathe, in an interview with Arab media last week.

Speaking with Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV and Shehab News Agency on Friday, and reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Sinwar said, “I say this loud and clear: God forbid, if a time comes when we have no choice but to watch our citizens breathe their final breaths, and when there are no ventilators – I say to (Israeli Defense Minister Naftali) Bennett that we will make six million Israeli settlers unable to breathe.”

Sinwar accused Israel and Bennett of having a “Merchant of Venice mentality,” a comment which has antisemitic overtones, due to its reference to Shylock, the Jewish lead character of William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock as a Jewish moneylender has been accused of appearing antisemitic due to stereotypes about Jews.

“Bennett, I refer you to the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 17, to read what awaits you, and what awaits your filthy [Zionist] entity,” Sinwar declared. “Because the kind of language that you use can be expected only from someone who has a Merchant of Venice mentality.”

“The Merchant of Venice gave people loans, and when the time came, and they could not repay their debts, he started to cut off their flesh as payment for the money he had given them. This is the common practice of Bennett, and of the entire Zionist system that has occupied our land.”

Sinwar also declared that the coronavirus pandemic was retribution for the US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018.

“When I saw Trump signing his decision to allocate $2.2 trillion for the coronavirus response, I recalled how he had signed in the same manner his decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Sinwar said in the interview. ” I said then: You and the Americans will pay the price for this unjust and criminal decision.”