Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, who was targeted in an assassination attempt in Qatar last week, appeared today (Wednesday) for the first time since the attack in an interview with Al Jazeera.
He recounted, “We were sitting to discuss the American proposal to end the war. Less than an hour later, we heard explosions and immediately realized it was an assassination attempt. As residents of Gaza, we recognize these sounds. We tried to flee the area as quickly as possible—and we succeeded.”
Hamad added in the interview: “We are not afraid of Trump’s threats to unleash hell upon us. We do not take orders from him on how to treat enemy prisoners. We treat them according to our own methods and according to our religion.”
Hamad, chairman of the Gaza Energy Authority, previously served as Hamas spokesperson and deputy foreign minister. He was also known as a mediator in the Gilad Shalit deal and was close to Ahmad Jabari.
At age 16, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and with the founding of Hamas in 1987, he joined the organization, later serving five years in an Israeli prison for membership in Hamas.
During the current conflict, he even stated, “Israel is a state that has no place on our land. It is a state we want to bring down.”