Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan stormed off an interview with CNN anchor Jim Sciutto on Saturday night when the exchange got heated on the topics of October 7 and the terror group's responsibility for the deaths of innocent Palestinians in Gaza.
Hamdan appeared remotely from Doha where he was expected to discuss the ongoing ceasefire-hostage deal negotiations - discussions of which Hamas has expressed scepticism on.
Sciutto began by thanking Hamdan for joining him and asked, “Does Hamas today regret the October 7 terror attacks?” given the large death toll the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed.
I pressed senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan on whether Hamas accepts any responsibility for the loss of civilian life in Gaza, which residents have told CNN they believe it does. He wouldn’t answer and instead took me on a history lesson of events he didn’t know I witnessed… pic.twitter.com/L3UUzHrVPb
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 17, 2024
“Well, it seems to me you are giving the Israelis the right to kill the Palestinians,” Hamdan dodged, not addressing the mention of the hundreds of civilians murdered by Hamas on October 7.
“When you ask if we feel regret for what Israel has done. You have to understand that Israel has been killing the Palestinians for the last 76 years, and when the Palestinians react against the occupation, who failed the Palestinians, who failed agreements, who continue undermining the peace process and trying to take over all the Palestinian lands…talking in public about kicking out 2 million Palestinians from the West Bank to east Jordan…All this is the right for Israel and when the Palestinians react against the occupation, they have to regret….”
Despite Hamdan’s claim that Israel is seeking to take over “all the Palestinian lands,” Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, and numerous two-state solutions have been offered to Palestinian leadership throughout Israel’s history as an established state.
According to Al Jazeera, Hamdan attended university in Jordan before eventually joining Hamas in Iran in 1993. From 1998 until 2009, he represented the terror group in Lebanon before assuming the Headship of the International Relations Department for Hamas in 2009.
Accusations of bias versus Scuitto's record of reporting
As Hamdan continued to make claims that Israel had been killing Palestinians “by thousands,” Sciuttio interrupted the Hamas official’s rant, adding his own experience as a seasoned journalist.
Despite Hamdan’s accusations, the Jerusalem Post was able to confirm that the reporter has commented on Israel’s military actions multiple times and the civilian casualties resulting from said actions.
Only Saturday, Sciutto posted on X, “New: An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people, including a woman and her two children, and wounded at least five, in Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Nabatieh overnight.”
New: An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people, including a woman and her two children, and wounded at least five, in Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area…
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 17, 2024
A week prior, he posted, “New: At least 90 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on Al-Tabi'in school in Gaza city, according to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal. CNN is unable to confirm the Civil Defense's data, partly because Gaza is inaccessible to international media. Saturday's strike is the fifth known on a school in Gaza by the Israeli military since last Sunday, according to CNN's previous reporting.”
New: At least 90 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on Al-Tabi'in school in Gaza city, according to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal. CNN is unable to confirm the Civil Defense's data, partly because Gaza is inaccessible to international media.… pic.twitter.com/KInKHd3now
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 10, 2024
He has been notably critical of Israeli leadership, writing in a series of social media posts: “One thing to listen for: will Netanyahu make any reference to the thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza?...There you go: Netanyahu claims civilian casualties amount to “practically none” and says Israeli forces should be “commended” for the number of civilians killed…This is in relation specifically to Rafah, where witnesses have reported many civilian casualties as well…”
This in relation specifically to Rafah, where witnesses have reported many civilian casualties as well. Such as: https://t.co/vgavCfG2gx
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 24, 2024
“I have covered…I have been coming to this part of the world for more than 20 years," Scuitto told Hamdan, "and I have personally covered terror attacks by Hamas that killed Israeli civilians…More than 20 years… So, I am asking you this, just looking at the last 10 months of this conflict…Does Hamas accept any responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza? Because, as you know, Hamas tunnels, Hamas military units are based under and around homes, mosques, and schools in Gaza. Do you accept any responsibility for any of the deaths in Gaza?”
Operation Protective Edge and Operation Cast Lead
While Sciutto framed his question with context, Hamdan tried several times to interrupt. Eventually, Hamdan nodded and retorted, “Yeah, unfortunately, you have covered this region for 20 years - but you were watching the region with Israeli eyes. You didn’t show the Israelis killing thousands of Palestinians for the last 20 years. In 2014, Israel attacked Gaza, and they killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, but you didn’t see that. They attacked Gaza and killed, in one day, 1000 Palestinians in 2008, and you didn’t see that.”
Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel, was kickstarted after terror groups in the West Bank and Gaza increased rocket fire into Israel, according to the IDF. On average, one rocket was fired every ten minutes from the Gaza Strip to Israel, the IDF explained on their website, highlighting the reason behind the military actions. During that conflict, over 4500 rockets were fired into Israel, and the IDF identified 32 terror tunnels of which 14 extended into Israeli territory.
Despite a ceasefire on July 15, 2014, during one of eight occasions, Hamas violated a ceasefire agreement, Hamas continued to launch nearly 50 rockets at Israel - killing a civilian near the Erez Crossing.
Only two days later, a dozen terrorists violated a humanitarian truce and infiltrated Israel via a terror tunnel to attack a kibbutz.
The 2008 conflict referenced by Hamdan, also known as Operation Cast Lead, was also started as Hamas continued to threaten the lives of Israeli civilians with missile threats. The operation ended after 22 days of fighting.
Sciutto interjected, “Actually, I was here in 2014, and I was here in 2008.”
Attempting to repeat his question, the CNN interviewer asked again, “I am asking you if Hamas accepts…” but Hamdan’s interruptions prevented the question from being posed.
“What you are saying is factually incorrect,” Sciutto continued. “I was here for both of those conflicts. My question is, does Hamas accept any responsibility for the deaths of its own people in Gaza?”
“Do not accuse me. You cannot ask and answer by yourself,” a visibly frustrated Hamdan said. “Either you let me answer, or you can finish talking to yourself by yourself if you wish that; it is okay. I am done. I have to answer, and I want to say what I want to say - it's not your duty to dictate what I am supposed to say. It is not your duty to receive the answers you wish to receive.”
“So the question is,” Sciutto tried again, “do you accept responsibility for the deaths of civilians in Gaza? That’s the question.”
What about the West Bank?
Hamdan, shaking his head, responded, “You still keep watching what is happening by the Israeli eyes, listening by the Israeli ears, acting as if you are part of an Israeli military attack against the Palestinians. It seems you support the killing of 40,000 Palestinians. You are not blaming the Israelis for anything, you are talking about Palestinians as if they were nothing and you are just saying the Palestinians were killing the Israelis.
“Let's go to the West Bank, there is no Hamas, there is no action from Hamas, and the Israelis have already killed 800 Palestinians there in the last 10 months. What about this?”
Despite Hamdan’s claim that “there is no Hamas” in the West Bank, the terror group does have a considerable presence there. Only two weeks ago, a Hamas commander, Haitham Nour al-Din Balidi, was eliminated there in an airstrike.
The IDF announced near the time Balidi was eliminated that since the war started in October, some 4,400 suspects have been arrested in the West Bank, of whom 1,850 are affiliated with Hamas.
Last week, Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack in the West Bank city of Kalkilya. A 60-year-old Israeli and two Palestinians were wounded in the attack, which was carried out by an 18-year-old terrorist released as part of the November hostage deal.
Despite Hamdan’s claims about the West Bank, he told a webinar in May, “I believe that the next stage will be the stage of resistance from the West Bank, and this is not just an assessment but rather from knowledge of the situation and the facts on the ground, both regarding Hamas and other factions, and this is our priority in the next stage.”
“In fact,” Sciutto said while responding to accusations of bias, “CNN has covered the deaths of Palestinians quite closely…Let me ask you a question here because you’re saying…I am going to quote you. I am going to quote you right now…”
Hamdan continued to interrupt, “You didn’t show the women who are being killed.”
Sciutto persisted “I am going to quote you right now a Palestinian in Gaza…I am very aware of the civilian toll in Gaza.”
“You are not listening,” Hamdan continued to accuse. “You are not allowing me to answer. You don’t want to listen to the facts. You just want to listen to yourself. It's okay, that’s enough…”
Sciutto never aired the quote as Hamdan stormed out of the interview, accusing the journalist of “supporting the killing of the Palestinians.”
Later commenting on the interview, Sciutto wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “I pressed senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan on whether Hamas accepts any responsibility for the loss of civilian life in Gaza, which residents have told CNN they believe it does. He wouldn’t answer and instead took me on a history lesson of events he didn’t know I witnessed myself.”
Sam Halpern and Ohad Merlin contributed to this report.