Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has praised the recent spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis and said that because Palestinians have come to the conclusion that the peace process is futile, the path of “Jihad, sacrifice, and blood” is the only way forward.
“The Palestinians have reached the realization that negotiations with the (Israelis) are useless,” Mashaal said during a visit to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lampur on December 10. “The so-called peace process is futile. There is no peace. Only the path of Jihad, sacrifice, and blood (will bear fruit).”
Mashaal, who lives in exile in Qatar, was in Malaysia last week at the head of a delegation of senior Hamas officials for a four-day visit to meet with government officials and politicians.
“Our rights will not be restored through the UN Security Council but by means of recruitment,” he said in a speech, according to a translation provided by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute monitoring group. “Two thousand verbal ‘rockets’ do not compare to a single rocket made of iron. The children and youth of the West Bank have absorbed the message.
“Weapons like Kalashnikovs or missiles are not at hand, but there are knives and cars with which to run over the enemies,” he added. “By God, after the knives used by the people of the West Bank and Jerusalem, can anyone possibly have an excuse to abandon the path of jihad? Nobody can have such an excuse.”
Some 20 Israelis have been killed in three months of near-daily stabbing, shooting, and car-ramming terror attacks by Palestinians targeting civilians and security forces. More than 100 Palestinians have also been killed, a large proportion of them assailants shot as they carried out attacks, including some who were teenagers. Other Palestinians have been killed during violent clashes with Israeli security forces.
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Source: Times of Israel
