Senior Hamas official Khaled Mashal, once considered a leading contender to replace the assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, has called for a resumption of suicide bombings in the West Bank and urged Palestinians and their supporters to engage in “actual resistance” against Israel. His remarks, reported by Arabic media, were made during a conference in Istanbul, Turkey. According to Sky News Arabia, Mashal expressed the desire of the Hamas terror group to “return to [suicide] operations.” He framed the ongoing conflict with Israel, including the war in Gaza and frequent IDF raids in the West Bank, as a situation that necessitates open conflict. “They are fighting us with open conflict, and we are confronting them with open conflict,” Mashal said. Mashal’s comments also referenced the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, an event for which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility. “The enemy has opened the conflict on all fronts, seeking us all, whether we fight or not,” he said. “I repeat my call to everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the actual resistance against the Zionist entity,” he added. Mashal’s statements come amid a period of heightened tension and violence. Earlier in August, Hamas claimed responsibility for an explosion in Tel Aviv, which it described as a suicide bombing carried out in collaboration with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The August 18 attack injured one person moderately and killed the bomber instantly when the bomb detonated prematurely inside his backpack. While suicide bombings in Israel have been rare since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, Israeli security forces have recently identified attempts by Hamas and other terror groups in the West Bank to revive such tactics. In March of this year, a would-be suicide bomber was killed while attempting to infiltrate Israel from the West Bank, and other planned attacks have been foiled in their early stages. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)