Senior Hamas figure Khaled Mashal is currently undergoing a marathon of interviews to mark the one-year anniversary of the war. On Wednesday, in an interview with the Qatari channel Al-Arabi, he said: "Iran assassinated brother Abu al-Abd Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran."
His remarks, which apparently were a slip of the tongue, were quickly disseminated on social networks by Palestinians who did not seem surprised by Mashaal's statement. "Not a tongue slip! On the contrary, God made him speak the truth, he is the one who weaned himself off lies, deception and contempt for the blood and soul of the Palestinian people."
Many conspiracies have arisen since the assassination of Haniyeh, who served as chairman of Hamas' political bureau, at an IRGC hotel in Tehran on July 31, when he arrived to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pazshekian.
This is not the first time that Mashal has been in trouble for his statements. On the anniversary of the war, he said Hamas's losses were "tactical" while Israel's losses were "strategic." In yesterday's interview, he repeated these terms, describing everything Israel achieved in the war as "tactical achievements," given that it had suffered "strategic losses," especially in the international arena.
This provoked much outrage. Ashraf Ajram, former minister of Palestinian prisoners in the Palestinian Authority, wrote that "this is not a slip of the tongue, but a true expression of the ideology and thought of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. It reflects the movement's perception of the people. For Islamic fundamentalist movements, including Hamas, the homeland has no value."
"Every place where the Islamic Emirate can be established is the homeland, and it doesn't matter if it's Palestine, Gaza, Afghanistan or anywhere on the globe. The people are a project. What matters is the survival of those who carry the thought. This is reflected in repeated statements by Hamas leaders," he concluded.
* Ynet contributed to this article.
