Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal
Hamas leader Khaled MeshaalReuters

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has blamed the rise of terror in Jerusalem and in Israel as a whole on a "spontaneous reaction to Israeli stubbornness," in an interview with Sky News Friday morning. 

Mashaal, who gave his first interview since Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and spoke from Hamas headquarters in Qatar, blamed Israel and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the security situation, claiming - as other Palestinian Arab leaders have - that Israel's continuing to build on its own land "provoked" the attacks. 

"The Palestinian people no longer have anything to lose in light of the continuation of the occupation and settlements, stealing the land, the attacks on the women and children and the holy sites," he said.

"The reaction is spontaneous...the Israeli stubbornness, combined with the international impotence in solving the Palestinian issue with a just solution, which gives the Palestinian people their self-determination, and gets rid of occupation...will lead to chaos in the region, not just in the Palestinian arena, but to an open conflict - a blood-bath."

Mashaal warned the international audience against "keeping the Palestinian issue of no solution," and against a crackdown on the terror group. 

"Those betting on a security solution for stopping the resistance, by hunting its leadership and blocking weapons coming to its fighters, through the security cooperation of the Palestinian Authority with the Israelis, with regional and international cooperation - all of this has proven useless," Mashaal stated. "Because when public anger reaches its limit it explodes on its own, and expresses itself in ways that surprises everyone."

Mashaal specifically blamed Netanyahu for the lack of peace, claiming that Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas's positions on the issues - despite his unilateral breaches of the Oslo Accords and actual incitement against Israel - should be enough for Israel to make major concessions. 

"He has positions which satisfy Western and American standards," Mashaal claimed. "And with all this, what has Netanyahu done in return? Nothing."

"Therefore the problem is not the Palestinian position, whether from Fatah or Hamas, or the leadership, the fault is Netanyahu's position," he concluded. 

Mashaal's interview aired just as security sources announced that Hamas had fired seven test rockets in two days, in likely preparation for another war with Israel.