One of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Nazami Nasser, has written a Facebook post apologising to the Palestinian people for the destruction that Hamas has brought to Gaza.
Nasser was one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and was known to be close to Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander who was assassinated in Dubai in 2010.
In the post Nasser apologised to the various factions of the Palestinian terroritories (except Hamas) and said he was sorry for the “horror of hatred that lived within me toward you [i.e., the political factions],” and for his “relentless work so that you would not have a geographical or political place on the national map.”
“I apologise to you for my biggest dream,” he added, “that you would all be buried beneath the ground, dead and motionless.”
“I ask God to forgive me for this [deception] from the Devil [i.e., Hamas], that this hatred would bring me to the highest height of Paradise. O God, O God, O God I have been deprived of the blessing of diversity… My homeland has been destroyed because I couldn’t comprehend the acceptance of others. And what is worse, I thought I was working with religion.”
“I hope you will accept my apology for this, though it may not be helpful after all this destruction and devastation against religion, the homeland and the people,” he wrote.
According to Times of Israel, the official PA news site Wafa said it had been unable to get in touch with Nasser since his post was published on Wednesday.
Nasser has recently been involved in a Palestinian reconciliation movement and has indicated he may run in municipal elections in October.
Wafa news wrote on Wednesday that Nasser’s apology “opened the door for questions among citizens over how dangerous Hamas’s plans and practices might be, that they made a leader of this stature break his silence in such a striking way.”
