Hamas terrorists in Gaza
Hamas terrorists in GazaFlash 90

Hamas claimed Monday night that photos that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu displayed during his UN General Assembly speech showing Hamas terrorists setting up rocket launchers and firing rockets at Israel from areas containing civilians were fabricated. Hamas, terrorist group spokesperson Sami Abu-Zuhri said, would never place rocket launchers next to children, as depicted by the photos Netanyahu displayed. “Obviously it is a lie,” he said.

In his speech, Netanyahu equated Hamas with the Islamic State, the Islamist group that has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq. “ISIS is Hamas, and Hamas is ISIS,” Netanyahu said. “Both want the same things. Hamas shares the same militant ambitions of global Islamists,” the Prime Minister said.

Netanyahu also noted Hamas's executions of Fatah members and dissidents, as well as the terror group's deliberate use of children as human shields, using a France 24 photo as proof. "This is a war crime," he said. "I say to Abbas: there are the war crimes committed by Hamas, under your leadership, under the unity government you head, and these are the war crimes you should have called to investigate last week."

"The profound moral difference between Israel and Hamas couldn't have been clearer," he said. "Israel was using missiles to protect its children, Hamas was using children to protect its missiles."

Hamas repudiated both the photo and Netanyahu's comments. “Comparing Hamas to the Islamic State and presenting them as two sides of the same coin is an attempt to confuse matters. Hamas is the national liberation movement of Palestine. It is the occupation by Israel that is the source of all evil and terror in the world. Israel and terror are the same thing.”