Khalil al-Hayya praises deadliest massacre of Jews since Holocaust as ‘a source of pride for our people’; Islamic Jihad calls deal ‘an honorable agreement to stop the aggression’
Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya praised the October 7 massacre as a major achievement that would be taught to future generations of Palestinians with pride, while touting the ceasefire-hostage deal that was announced shortly before he spoke Wednesday as a “historic moment.”
“Our people have thwarted the declared and hidden goals of the occupation. Today we prove that the occupation will never defeat our people and their resistance,” al-Hayya was quoted as saying during a televised speech from Qatar.
He praised the Hamas-led massacres of Israelis on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 captives, amid atrocities including rape and torture.
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Hamas’s top negotiator in the ceasefire and hostage talks said despite suing for an end to the war, the group would continue to pursue Israel’s destruction, looking toward Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a “compass.”
“Our enemy will never see a moment of weakness from us,” he added.
Al-Hayya, who served as Hamas’s chief negotiator in the hostage talks, additionally hailed other Iran-backed organizations such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen for launching solidarity attacks on Israel.
Al-Hayya claimed Hamas “will not forgive” the suffering inflicted in the Gaza Strip amid the war sparked by its October 2023 attack, which led to mass devastation throughout the coastal enclave. The Hamas-run health ministry has reported over 46,000 killed in Gaza since then, an unverified figure that doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
“On behalf of all the victims, every drop of blood spilt and every tear of pain and oppression, we say: We will not forget, and we will not forgive,” said al-Hayya.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest terror group after Hamas, similarly praised the ceasefire deal as “honorable.”
Hamas had needed Islamic Jihad’s support for the deal in order to avoid a potential disruption in the process.
“Today, our people and their resistance imposed an honorable agreement to stop the aggression,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement.
The Iran-backed terror group said the deal between Israel and Hamas includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as well as an “honorable” prisoner exchange, adding that terrorist organizations in Gaza “will remain vigilant to ensure the full implementation of this agreement.”
Islamic Jihad also seized captives while taking part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and have since been battling Israeli forces in Gaza alongside Hamas.
Under the multiphase deal reached Wednesday, which is aimed at ending the 15-months of fighting in Gaza, Hamas and other terror groups are slated to gradually release the 94 hostages of the 251 hostages abducted on October 7 who remain in Gaza.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-leader-touts-ceasefire-as-a-defeat-for-israel-while-hailing-oct-7-atrocities/.
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