'Hamas is being compared to ISIS', former Hamas chief challenged by Arab news host

Khaled Meshaal served as chairman of the political bureau of Hamas between 1996 and 2017.

 Former head of the Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, talks during an interview with Reuters in Doha, Qatar January 30, 2020. (photo credit: NASEEM ZEITOON/REUTERS)
Former head of the Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, talks during an interview with Reuters in Doha, Qatar January 30, 2020.
(photo credit: NASEEM ZEITOON/REUTERS)

Khaled Mashaal, one of the senior members of the terrorist organization Hamas, was interviewed Thursday night on the Saudi 'Al-Arabiya network and discussed the current war with Israel.

Unexpectedly, during the conversation, the presenter asked to confront Mashal with the fact that the world compares the Hamas organization to Daesh, a murderous and extremely cruel fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organization, which committed atrocities against civilians.

"You claim that the resistance is legitimate in your eyes, but what the Western world saw on its television screens was the Hamas movement harming Israeli citizens. The world compares the movement that you are responsible for, among other things, for its image abroad, to ISIS," she slammed him.

Meshaal, who served between 1996 and 2017 as chairman of the political bureau of Hamas, replied to her: "Israel will kill us, whether we were opposed or not."

 Sbarro terror mastermind Ahlam Tamimi prays with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, Cairo 2011 (credit: JAMAL SAIDI/ REUTERS)
Sbarro terror mastermind Ahlam Tamimi prays with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, Cairo 2011 (credit: JAMAL SAIDI/ REUTERS)

Hamas has enough soldiers to free all security prisoners in Israel

"Hamas is holding captive enough IDF soldiers through which it is possible to negotiate the release of the security prisoners imprisoned in Israel," he claimed. The surprise attack on Israel was "a calculated move that Hamas is fully aware of the consequences of," he continued.

Afterward, he referred to the Arab countries' support in the campaign and admitted: "Hezbollah and Iran provide us with weapons, experience, and technology support in this battle, but we demand more from them. We are satisfied with the support of the Arab countries and their standing by our side, but we call on them to provide more support."

Referring to the harm to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, he noted that "Hamas and its military arm focuses its opposition on the occupation forces and soldiers, but in all wars, there are some civilian casualties." Nevertheless, he avoided taking responsibility for the explosion in the Gaza hospital and for the harm to civilians from their forces' fire: "We do not target civilians on purpose, even though our weapons are not advanced enough, while Israel has American weapons."

He attacked the Biden administration and accused it of inhumanity and morality due to the fact that "they do not see the hospitals and mosques that were damaged and the war crimes of the Zionist army on the land of Gaza".