Hamas official says the group wants to slaughter every Jew in the world

There are many articles this morning in Arab media about a speech that Hamas politburo member Fathi Hamad made at the Friday Gaza rally.

Hamad gave Israel a deadline of one week before Hamas will start a terror spree worldwide targeting Jews.

"If the enemy does not break this siege, and if the understandings are not implemented, we will not allow the Palestinians to enter Gaza," Hamad said in a speech to demonstrators participating in the "return marches" east of Gaza City. "We have a lot of means and methods in our arsenal."

"We are about to explode and the explosion will not be in Gaza, but in the occupied West Bank and abroad as well," Hamad said.

He then said, "We must attack, slaughter and kill every Jew who exists in the world."

Hamad was chided for that last statement by Hamas leaders.

Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef sent an open letter to Hamad, saying that his speech was in error.

"My brother, Fathi Hamad (Abu Musab), I understand your anger at the crimes of the occupation against our people, but the language of knives and explosive belts is not the language of politicians, and talk about the killing of Jews is a violation of religious and moral law, and even contrary to what is stated in the Hamas political document."

He is referring to the Hamas manifesto released with much fanfare in 2017 that was more conciliatory to Jews but was falsely reported as a replacement for their charter which indeed calls to kill all Jews.

Yousef's letter continues to say, "O brother, Abu Musab, your hurried enthusiasm [caused you to say things that] will give all pretexts to the occupation to tighten the siege and the practice of further aggression, and will contribute to the abandonment of our people in the Gaza Strip.

Yousef said: "The leadership of Hamas and the head of its political bureau needs to correct the error and explain the situation, because the cost of this speech can be high, and its consequences painful."

Other Palestinians disavowed Hamad's words, saying they do not hate Jews.

Mahmoud al-Zaq, a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, said "This speech can  is harmful, which harms our people and turns us from victim to murderer."

Dr. Hossam al-Dajani, a writer and political analyst who is close to Hamas, called Hamad's call to kill the Jews a "strategic mistake and a coup against the Hamas political document."

He said: "This is a serious mistake that Hamas will pay for and should immediately disavow this speech because its repercussions will be serious, especially if a Jew were killed in any foreign capital, the charge would be justified."

"The language of slaughtering in the media is not successful, especially as it is linked to world public opinion which closely links [Hamas] with terrorism and brings the consequent phobia of Islam."

This pushback is rare, as there are antisemitic articles in Arab media all the time. However they rarely reach the level of explicit calls to genocide, and much (but not all) of the criticism centers more on the ramifications of Hamad's words in world public opinion than the immorality of his call to kill all Jews.

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