'Return to martyrdom': Hamas official instructs Palestinian terrorists to return to suicide bombing

Hamas official Khaled Mashaal also criticized US efforts at obtaining a hostage-ceasefire deal.

 FORMER HAMAS head Khaled Mashaal poses during an interview with Reuters in Qatar, in 2020. During the current war, an Al-Arabiya anchor criticized him for harming Israeli civilians and asked him if he would apologize. (photo credit: NASEEM ZEITOON/REUTERS)
FORMER HAMAS head Khaled Mashaal poses during an interview with Reuters in Qatar, in 2020. During the current war, an Al-Arabiya anchor criticized him for harming Israeli civilians and asked him if he would apologize.
(photo credit: NASEEM ZEITOON/REUTERS)

Hamas official Khaled Mashaal called on Wednesday for suicide bombing in Israel and the West Bank while delivering a speech at a conference in Turkey, according to CNN Arabic.

The same Hamas official called for the whole Arab world to join Hamas in attacking Israel only days after October 7. 

"Resistance operations in the West Bank are escalating despite the harsh conditions,"  Mashaal told the conference.

"We want to return to martyrdom operations. This is a situation that can only be addressed by open conflict. They are fighting us with open conflict, and we are confronting them with open conflict," he continued.

“The enemy has opened the conflict on all fronts, seeking us all, whether we fight or not. The enemy says, ‘I am crazy,’ and it is up to the nation to assume its responsibilities. I reiterate my call for everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the actual resistance against the Zionist entity."

Mashaal also slammed the United States efforts at reaching a Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, accusing the US of supplying Israel with “weapons of destruction.”

Tel aviv car bomb 224.88 (credit: Channel 10)
Tel aviv car bomb 224.88 (credit: Channel 10)

"America abandoned the July 2 paper [U.S. President Joe Biden's Gaza ceasefire proposal] then blamed Hamas, knowing that the one who disrupted the agreement was [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, who has a personal agenda, in addition to the Zionist agenda that America and some Western countries unfortunately support," he said.

Preventing attacks from West Bank terrorists

Marshaal’s address came as the IDF announced it was conducting the most extensive counter-terror operations in the West Bank in recent months. 

The operations have been planned in response to an attempted suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv. The military believed the attack was planned in the Tulkarm area in the West Bank. 

In recent searches, the IDF has found a number of hidden laboratories for the manufacturing of explosives, the Jerusalem Post reported.