Hamas leader vows group will ‘rise like Phoenix’

Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal vowed the Palestinian group would rise “like a Phoenix” from the ashes, and would continue to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons, despite heavy losses suffered during a year of war with Israel.

A year after the Hamas attack that triggered the war, Meshaal framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative spanning 76 years, dating back to what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or catastrophe, when many were displaced during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.

“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters in an interview published on Tuesday.

“We go through phases where we lose martyrs and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the Phoenix, thanks to God.”

Meshaal, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997, after he was injected with poison and was overall Hamas leader from 1996-2017, said the Islamist militant group was still able to mount ambushes against Israeli troops. (Brisbane Times)

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