In a video statement, the former leader of Hamas has called for a global day of jihad on Friday, Oct. 13, as he praised the work of the Hamas militants who invaded Israel over the weekend, slaughtering hundreds and sparking a war that has led to over 2,200 deaths — including 25 Americans.
“[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday,” Khaled Meshaal said in the video, which was released to Reuters. He called upon his “brothers and sisters” in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt to take action and rally around the cause on Friday in support of their Palestinian brethren.
He also made a special plea to Muslims living in the countries surrounding Israel saying: “Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan … This is a moment of truth and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility,”
The ex leader has been in exile in Qatar since 2012 when he was evicted from Syria by Bashar Al Assad. He was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh who has been the leader of Hamas since 2017.
WASHINGTON (TND) — A former head of the terror group Hamas has designated Friday, October 13, as the “Day of Jihad,” calling on Muslims to take to the streets and deliver a message of anger.
Deliver a message through the squares and the streets a message of anger that we are with Palestine,” said Khaled Meshaal, a former Hamas leader, in a recorded message.
He also urged Muslims in neighboring countries like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt to join the fight against Israel. Emerging threats are adding to those already alarming the West.
“We’re also worried about Jihadist groups like in Syria. We have the Iran-backed Shia militia groups in Iraq in the have all sorts of jihadist groups that is our worst nightmare,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a CNN interview Thursday.
New reports say the massacre in Israel was apparently planned for two years.
Another Hamas leader admitted in an interview with Russia TV that Hamas was actually planning for warfare under the guise of providing welfare.
“We made them think Hamas was busy with governing Gaza and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians and has abandoned the resistance altogether. All the while under the table Hamas was preparing for the big attack,” said senior Hamas official Ali Baraka.
The interview, translated by the group “MEMRI,” a Middle Eastern Research Institute co-founded by Israeli-Americans, also included a demand that members of Hamas detained in the United States be released.
During a White House briefing Thursday, Rear Adm. John Kirby said he hadn’t seen the report but did speak on getting American hostages back home.
We obviously take seriously our responsibility to get Americans held overseas back with their families. We have in the past entered into negotiations to do exactly that. And we have not foreclosed any options right not in terms of these particular hostages,” said Kirby, the NSC coordinator for strategic communications.
These developments come as Israel has pounded Gaza for days including places of worship, schools and refugee camps in retaliation for what Hamas called the Al Aqsa Flood Operation.
Hamas said it carried out the operation – which has included the brutal murders of men, women and children in Israel – in response to decades of violence against and oppression of Palestinians.
