Top Hamas official Khaled Mashal called on Wednesday for the resumption of suicide bombings in the West Bank, according to reports from Arabic media.
Mashal urged Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause to engage in “actual resistance against the Zionist entity.”
During an address at a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, as reported by Sky News Arabia, Mashal stated that Hamas aimed to “return to [suicide] operations.” He emphasized that the ongoing conflict with Israel in Gaza and the frequent Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) raids against Palestinian groups in the West Bank could only be met with “open conflict.”
Mashal remarked, “They are fighting us with open conflict, and we are confronting them with open conflict.” He suggested that Israel’s actions, including what he implied was the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, had escalated the conflict. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in Haniyeh’s death.
Mashal reiterated his call for widespread participation in resistance efforts against Israel, particularly highlighting the need for action on multiple fronts. He had been briefly considered a potential successor to Haniyeh before Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, took on the role.
Earlier in August, Hamas claimed responsibility for an explosion in Tel Aviv, describing it as a suicide bombing carried out in collaboration with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The attack on August 18 injured one person moderately when a bomb detonated in the backpack of the attacker, who was killed instantly.
Suicide bombings in Israel have been rare since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, which saw hundreds of Israelis killed in a wave of such attacks.
