Hamas Calls on Muslims Around the World to 'Mobilize' on Friday
Hamas is calling for a worldwide mobilization of Muslims on Friday to support what it called “the jihad waging Gaza.”
“Answer the call, muster all your energies, and mobilize in numbers, both light and heavy,” Hamas said in a statement Tuesday, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The statement was aimed at “Palestinian people, the masses of the Arab and Islamic world, and free people worldwide” and urged them to “strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah.”
“The Palestinian resistance, led by the Al-Qassam Brigades, stands at the forefront, illustrating the most magnificent images of heroism and sacrifice against the Zionist occupation,” the Iran-backed terrorist group said.
“From the fortress of resistance and pride in the Gaza Strip, from its steadfast people, men, women, children, and elders, who defy the occupation, and from its minarets, chambers, and mosques, which are subjected to the heinous aggression of the Zionist war machine, we send this call to the free sons and daughters of our Arab and Islamic nation across the world,” Hamas wrote.
It said Friday would be a day “to rally support, offer aid, and participate actively. It is a day to expose the crimes of the occupation, isolate it, and foil all its aggressive schemes.”
Hamas called for uprisings in the West Bank and elsewhere.
“We call upon our rebellious youth throughout the West Bank, in its cities, villages, and uprising camps, in the streets and neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and at the squares of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, to rise up, join massive demonstrations, and shake the ground beneath the feet of the Zionist invaders and their settler gangs,” the group said. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a Muslim holy site on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
“Engage with their soldiers and cowardly army in every place,” Hamas wrote.
“We call upon the masses of our Arab and Islamic nation and our Palestinian people in all places, including refugee camps and the diaspora, to march towards the borders of our beloved Palestine in massive gatherings,” it said, adding, “For those geographically distant, let them gather at the nearest point leading to Jerusalem.”
Hamas urged “the free people of the world to mobilize in solidarity with our Palestinian people and in support of their just cause and legitimate rights to freedom, independence, return, and self-determination.”
On Thursday, the United Nations issued a broad condemnation of the Middle Eastern violence that included criticism of Israel.
After calling out the “horrific crimes” of Hamas, the world body said, “We also strongly condemn Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza, comprising over 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children.
“They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for. This amounts to collective punishment.”
The statement called for actions to “address the root causes of the current conflict, including the 56-year-old occupation and the annexation pursued by Israel.”
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a very different tone during a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to the Times of Israel.
“Mr. Secretary, you have come to a hurting nation, a fighting nation, a nation of lions, a nation that is determined to defeat the forces of evil around us,” Netanyahu said.
“Hamas has shown itself to be an enemy of civilization,” he said. “The massacring of young people at an outdoor music festival, the butchering of entire families, the murder of parents in front of their children and the murder of children in front of their parents. The burning of people alive. The beheadings. The kidnappings — of a young boy, not only kidnapped, molested, hurt, attacked.”
The prime minister equated Hamas with the Islamic State terrorist group.
“Hamas is ISIS, and just as ISIS was crushed, so too should Hamas be crushed. And Hamas should be treated exactly as ISIS was treated. They should be spit out from the community of nations. No leader should meet them. No country should harbor them. And those that do should be sanctioned,” Netanyahu said.
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