Hamas will rise 'like a phoenix' from the ashes
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said the Islamist militant group will rise "like a phoenix" from the ashes despite suffering heavy losses in a year of war with Israel.
A year after Hamas' offensive led to war, Meshaal sees the conflict with Israel as part of a broader 76-year story that began with what Palestinians call the "Nakba," or "catastrophe," when many people were displaced in the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.
“Palestinian history is made up of cycles,” Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under joint leadership Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters in an interview.
"We went through periods of losing martyrs and losing part of our military capacity, but then the Palestinian spirit rose again, like a phoenix, by the grace of God."
Meshaal, who survived a 1997 Israeli assassination attempt after being injected with a lethal drug and was Hamas's overall leader from 1996 to 2017, said the Islamist militant group continued to recruit fighters and produce weapons to continue ambushing Israeli troops.
Hamas also fired four rockets into the Gaza Strip on the morning of October 7, on the first anniversary of Hamas's attack on southern Israel. But all were intercepted by Israel.
"We have lost some ammunition and weapons, but Hamas is still recruiting young people and continues to produce a significant part of its ammunition and weapons," Meshaal said, without providing details.
Meshaal remains influential within the militant group Hamas, having played a key role in its leadership for nearly three decades and now serving as its diplomatic face. Middle East analysts said his comments appeared to signal the group would fight on regardless of the cost.
"Overall, I think Hamas is alive and well and will probably return to the Gaza Strip at some point," said Joost Hiltermann, director of the North Africa and Middle East Programme at the International Crisis Management Group in Brussels.
Israel has not yet come up with a concrete plan for the Gaza Strip once the war ends, and this could allow Hamas to re-establish itself, although perhaps not as strongly or in the same form, Joost Hiltermann added.
According to Israeli statistics, Israel began its attack on Hamas after about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage in a Hamas attack on October 7 last year.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials say much of the Gaza Strip has been devastated and some 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive.
Israel says Hamas no longer exists as an organized military structure and has been reduced to guerrilla tactics. According to Israeli officials, about 17,000 Hamas fighters have died in the Gaza Strip, while about 350 Israeli soldiers have died in the war.
Meshaal said he saw no prospect of peace while Prime Minister Netanyahu's government remained in power. Israel blamed Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, for failing to secure peace.
“As long as the Israeli occupation exists, this area remains a time bomb,” said Meshaal.