Senior Hamas official threatens Blinken, says America must ‘pay the price’ for Gaza blood: report
A top Hamas official has called for violence against the allies of Israel, specifically attacking American and British ‘interests’ as a price for the deaths of Gaza citizens.
‘When (Secretary of State Antony) Blinken is justifying the killing of women and children, the sons of our nation should say to him: You are the enemy, just like (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, and you must pay the price, just like Netanyahu,’ Sami Abu Zuhri, the head of the political department of Hamas abroad, said during a recent broadcast.
Zuhri made his comments, which the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated, on Al-Aqsa TV on Dec. 5, a few days after the end of the temporary pause that allowed Hamas and Israel to exchange hostages and prisoners, respectively.
Hamas runs the Al-Aqsa TV network in the Gaza Strip, playing news and propaganda throughout the day.
The pause lasted from Nov. 24 until Dec. 1, at which point Israel resumed its devastating ground campaign against Hamas, claiming the terrorist group failed to uphold its side of the agreement. Hamas claimed they had only soldiers left in their custody and refused to exchange them unless Israel released all Palestinian prisoners and agreed to a permanent cease-fire.
‘If our nation thinks that the heroic acts of Al-Qassam Brigades release it from its responsibility — that is a misconception and a mistaken assessment that should be discarded,’ he continued. ‘The Al-Qassam Brigades are doing what they must do, and the people of Gaza are as steadfast as they must be.’
The Al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.
‘Now it is our nation’s turn to pressure the Americans to stop this war,’ Zuhri argued. ‘We need violent acts against American and British interests everywhere, as well as the interests of all the countries that support the occupation.’
‘They must pay a price for the blood of our women and children who are being killed in cold blood in the streets of Gaza,’ he added. ‘They must pay a price so that they know that Gaza is not alone, and that when they gave the order to kill, they should have been prepared to pay the necessary price.’
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are warning of heightened threats to public safety this holiday season and through winter associated with the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The FBI says it is ‘closely monitoring threats to public safety during the holiday season which may be amplified’ by the war.
Following the resumption of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations has pushed for a permanent cease-fire, which the U.S. and the U.K. have resisted.
Secretary-General António Guterres invoked Article 99 of the U.N. charter to issue a letter directly to the Security Council, allowing him to address the body and voice his concerns and urge them to seek a cease-fire.
The U.S. vetoed the measure, and the U.K. abstained from voting. The U.S. blasted the resolution as ‘divorced from reality’ and argued that an unconditional cease-fire would prove ‘dangerous’ and ‘a recipe for disaster for Israel, for Palestinians and for the entire region.’
The General Assembly this week then adopted a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
The U.S. was one of 10 countries that voted against the resolution. Nearly two dozen countries abstained, including Argentina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Ukraine and the U.K.
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.