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Hamas Threats to ‘Cut Off Heads,’ ‘Slit Throats,’ and ‘Slaughter Every Jew on the Planet’ Were Ignored in 2019
Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on October 7 shocked everyone in Israel and abroad. So did the brutality of the attack, the cruelty of the murders, and the inhumanity of the torture.
But there were warnings, and the slaughter of at least 1,200 Israelis, the wounding of more than 4,800, and the kidnapping of at least 238 hostages should not have come as a surprise.
One of those warnings occurred in 2019, when Hamas Political Bureau member Fathi Hammad explained in detail Hamas’ intentions, goals, and aspirations: To murder “every Jew on the planet”:
Hamas Political Bureau member Fathi Hammad: “We are sharpening the knives … We were created here in Gaza to shatter and get rid of this [Zionist] entity … If we die it will be when we are killing you [Jews], and we will cut off your heads, Allah willing … There are seven million Palestinians abroad … You have Jews everywhere. We must attack every Jew on the planet — slaughter and kill … And you, the people of the West Bank … We want the knives to come out. Five shekels [for a knife] — isn’t the throat of a Jew worth five shekels to us? … I will die as I blow up and cut — what? The throats of the Jews and their legs. We will tear them to shreds, Allah willing.”
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), July 12, 2019]
Through the prism of Hamas’ massacre and attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the statement by Hammad in 2019 now looks like a chilling forecast.
Hammad’s words also stress that Hamas’ goal — as the terror organization states in its charter — is to destroy Israel and kill all Jews, not only in Israel, but in the entire world.
But Hamas is not alone in this goal. Palestinian Media Watch has exposed numerous statements by Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah officials that prove they share the goal of Israel’s destruction.
The PA has likewise been making genocidal threats for years and justified killing of Israelis and Jews. For example, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on Islam, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who Abbas appointed to be the Supreme Shari’ah Judge, explained to Palestinian viewers of official PA TV that Islam explicitly calls to “kill” people who “attack my home … my land … my homeland … my property … my honor” — all crimes the PA accuses Israel of committing:
Similar calls and teachings have been disseminated by PA officials saying that Jews are Satan in human form, humanoids, apes and pigs, evil, human waste, and that Palestinians therefore are justified in killing them and that Islam even wants it.
During the current war, the next generation of PA leaders — members of Fatah’s Student Movement — have been calling on Allah to murder Jews, while the PA has instructed preachers in mosques to teach that killing of Jews is an Islamic imperative.
Hamas’ threats were ignored until it was too late. It is time Israel and the world took the PA’s genocide threats at face value.
The authors are the founder and senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Hamas Threats to ‘Cut Off Heads,’ ‘Slit Throats,’ and ‘Slaughter Every Jew on the Planet’ Were Ignored in 2019 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.