A high-ranking Hamas official has announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will face legal action for his involvement in the conflict in Gaza. Osama Hamdan, a senior member of Hamas’s politburo, declared during a press conference in Algeria that Blinken’s comments are deceptive and that his complicity in the violence against Palestinians would be legally pursued. Hamdan labeled Blinken as “a partner in the war of extermination.”
In an interview with The New York Times over the weekend, Blinken directly pointed the finger at Hamas for the failure to secure an agreement on the release of hostages.
“What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded,” Blinken stated.
He also expressed confusion over the lack of global support for Hamas to disarm and release the hostages, adding, “Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender — I don’t know what the answer is to that. Israel, on various occasions, has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world? Where is the world saying, Yeah, do that! End this! Stop the suffering of people that you brought on!”
Hamdan argued that talks with Israel have shown that the Palestinians’ rights can only be secured through force.
“We are determined to stop the aggression and for the enemy to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and for relief and reconstruction to be without Israeli conditions,” Hamdan said. “We hope that this will be achieved as soon as possible.”
He also called for the establishment of a “national committee” to oversee Gaza’s administration and to “block the path of every corrupt argument that seeks to oppress our people.”
Ongoing indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas about a potential hostage agreement are taking place in Qatar, though progress has been slow.
Hamdan also emphasized Hamas’s desire for Syria to remain a stronghold of resistance due to Israel’s control of the Golan Heights. He stated, “One of the most important values launched by Al-Aqsa Flood [the Hamas name for the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught] is that peoples will not be liberated except through resistance.”
Regarding the wave of legal actions targeting Israeli soldiers vacationing abroad, Hamdan declared that “pursuing Zionist war criminals is a Palestinian national goal and a goal for all free people in the world. Those who raised the case in Brazil and elsewhere are people whose consciences pushed them to take action against the crimes of the occupation. Those who commit crimes of genocide must be pursued all over the world.”
{Matzav.com}