Former Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal announced from Turkey on Sunday that Gaza’s ruling terrorist organization has more “surprises” in store for Israel in future days.
“We will not give up the right of return. Gaza has surprised Israel with something new – and we have more surprises,” Meshaal promised, the Hamas website reported.
Speaking during a breakfast meeting in Istanbul arranged to mark the 90th anniversary of the Muslim Brotherhood, Meshaal said, “Israel will not be recognized” and the “deal of the century will be foiled.
In a televised speech in the southern Turkish city of Adana, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “terrorist” — also on Sunday — and Israel a “terrorist state.” The epithets were a response to the deaths of 15 Gazans – including 10 convicted terrorists – who were killed Friday by IDF soldiers as they were attacking the security fence in the Hamas-driven ‘march of return’ along the Gaza border. At least two terrorists also attempted to launch a shooting attack from northern Gaza, using the demonstrations as cover. Eight of those killed were members of Hamas.
Erdogan has long championed Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization, which was spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood, with which Turkey’s Islamist president has for decades maintained close ties.
“Netanyahu tries to take advantage of the current crises in the Arab world to liquidate the Palestinian cause benefiting from the existence of such extremists as U.S. President Donald Trump, and the help of some parties in the Arab and Muslim world,” Meshaal said in his address to the breakfast in Istanbul.
“All these conspiracies will not pass. They have started to eliminate the right to return, to take over Jerusalem and to ban funding the Hamas movement, but resistance will always continue and their efforts will always fail because the Palestinian people will never stop resistance, especially with more surprises from Gaza,” he added.