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Hamas Leader: ‘We Need the Blood of the Children, Women, and Elderly’
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, December 9, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
While much of the world is busy criticizing Israel for trying to destroy Hamas’ terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in order to prevent a repetition of the Oct. 7 massacre, almost no attention is given to Hamas’ repeated statements of its goal to destroy Israel entirely, or Hamas’ intentional use of civilians as human shields.
No outcry has been heard over Hamas Political Bureau member Osama Hamdan’s promise of a “future liberation battle” that will be worse than the massacre on Oct. 7:
Interviewer: “Were you to go back to Oct. 6 [2023], would you carry out Oct. 7 [i.e., Hamas’ massacre on Israel]?”
Hamas Political Bureau member Osama Hamdan: “Why do some people assume we would relinquish our role and our resistance?”
Interviewer: “In other words, there is no regret?”
Osama Hamdan: “Regret over how we crushed the Gaza Division, an entire division in the [Israeli] occupation army?”
Interviewer: “You told me that if the Israelis will come back to carry out new arrests after emptying the prisons [i.e., Israeli-Hamas exchange deal], you would carry out an additional operation ([i.e., terror attack]. Can you promise a new Oct. 7?”
Osama Hamdan: “I can promise a future liberation battle, and not just Oct. 7.”
Interviewer: “In the foreseeable future?”
Osama Hamdan: “I don’t think it will be long. What happened on Oct. 7 and what happened after it clarified that the future of this [Zionist] entity in the region is not guaranteed.”
[“Bel Moubashar,” YouTube video, Nov. 29, 2023]
The world has also been silent about Hamas’ cynical use of civilians as human shields.
Palestinian Media Watch has released statements by Hamas officials Political Bureau member Ghazi Hamad and Khaled Mashaal praising the many dead civilians as being necessary sacrifices for “liberation.”
From a third top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh — who like Hamad and Mashaal also lives safely outside of the Gaza Strip — it becomes clear that Hamas leaders exploit “the blood of the children, women, and elderly” because they need it to provoke anger and a willingness to fight Israel and ultimately die as “Martyrs” among Palestinians.
In Haniyeh’s words, this “blood” is used to “ignite within us the spirit of revolution”:
Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh: “The blood [spilled] in the Gaza Strip, alongside the resistance and the [Izz A-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades] will defeat this occupier ([i.e., Israel], will defeat this enemy … As I said, and I repeat every time, the blood of the children, women, and elderly — I do not say that it shouts out to you, but rather we need this blood so that it will ignite within us the spirit of revolution, so that it will arouse within us persistence, so that it will arouse within us defiance and [a forward] advance.”
[Website of Al-Jazeera TV, Oct. 26, 2023]
If the world wanted to be helpful it would be valuable to see it react to Hamas’ lethal manipulation of its civilian population to seek Martyrdom rather than simply criticizing Israel’s self-defense.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Hamas Leader: ‘We Need the Blood of the Children, Women, and Elderly’ 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.