Hamas leader: Gaza withdrawal ‘victory’

October 1, 2005

WorldNetDaily conducted an exclusive interview with senior Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri, translated from Arabic by Ali Waked.

WND: Israel just withdrew its Jewish communities and troops from the Gaza Strip. Is this a victory for your so-called “resistance operations” against Israelis?

ZUHRI: There is no doubt that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is a victory for the Palestinian resistance and its operations against the occupation. [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon admitted that the withdrawal was a unilateral act, which means it was not the result of any negotiations. The resistance brought about the Gaza withdrawal.

WND: Does that mean Hamas will continue to use “resistance operations” until you force Israel to vacate the rest of what you refer to as “occupied territories”?

ZUHRI: Yes. The resistance will be the principal tool to liberate the rest of our other occupied territories. Our people have bad experience with negotiations, which for years did not succeed in bringing a solution or prompting any Israeli withdrawal.

For example, the international community failed to use negotiations to form an investigative committee into Israel’s Jenin massacre, but through the resistance, parts of occupied areas in Jenin were liberated. Therefore resistance will be our main tool for the future. We will not stand aside with crippled hands while occupation continues.

‘Liberate’ all of Israel?

WND: When you speak of liberating Palestinian land, of occupied territories, do you mean the entire state of Israel? Or just the West Bank and Jerusalem?

ZUHRI: We are committed to all our historical rights. Our struggle is historical and very complicated. We are not against temporary solutions and we are not against the idea of liberating our lands step-by-step, but this does not mean in any case giving up any of our rights and any part of our land.

WND: Let’s say you kick the Israeli government and military out and Hamas becomes the ruler of Palestine, what would you do with any Jews or Christians still living there?

ZUHRI: We are not fighting against Jews because they are Jews. We are fighting the occupation of our lands and not fighting any religion.

WND: Your leader Mahmoud al-Zohar this week declared Hamas is ending all attacks from Gaza. Is al-Zohar serious? At about the same time of his public declaration, Hamas affiliated institutions announced your group will continue rocket attacks against Israeli towns.

ZUHRI: The decision to stop attacks is the result of an independent decision and comes from the will of Hamas. It means that we are committed to stopping attacks as long as the enemy is also committed to stopping its escalation. What proves that we are serious about this decision is the fact that since we made the declaration, our armed wing has been fully respecting it.

WND: Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Wednesday said Israel will assassinate al-Zohar if there are more Hamas rocket attacks. What is your group’s response to this Israeli threat?

ZUHRI: God is the only one who can take the lives and souls of people. Not Mofaz. These threats do not terrorize Hamas, and we are not afraid because of it. Israel assassinated [Hamas spiritual leader] Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and other leaders and we did not change our policies. These assassinations did not weaken the movement. On the contrary, they made us stronger as a movement and gave us more support among the Palestinian people.

Our decision to stop attacks was not taken from a position of weakness, but the opposite, it comes from a position of confidence and power. If Israel decides to carry out its decision [to assassinate al-Zohar] we will respond against the enemy as we always did.

WND: Do Hamas Qassam rockets shift the balance of military power away from Israel and more towards the Palestinians? Do you think the Israeli Defense Forces has the ability to stop your rocket attacks?

ZUHRI: Israel always tried to stop the rockets and she always failed to do so, even while using the most sophisticated technological and military tools. Hamas has succeeded in changing the military equation. The occupier must take this into consideration when he thinks to carry on his threats and to launch a new attack and aggression against our people and our activists.

WND: An explosion at a Hamas victory rally last Friday killed 21 Palestinians. Hamas has blamed Israel for the blast even though the Palestinian Authority’s own official investigation concluded Hamas members mistakenly detonated homemade rockets during the parade. Hamas even used the rally explosion as pretense to launch Qassams against Israeli Negev towns. Do you still maintain that Israel caused the large blast at your rally?

ZUHRI: The Israeli occupation is fully responsible for the [rally] massacre and photos show and prove that an Israeli aircraft was flying above the area where the rally was happening. Also the rockets we display at our rallies never contain explosives.

Is al-Qaida in Gaza?

WND: Israel’s intelligence chief is saying al-Qaida members are in Gaza. That they crossed over from bases in the Sinai while the Egyptian-Gaza border was wide open for several days following Israel’s withdrawal. Is al-Qaida in Gaza?

ZUHRI: All the Palestinian people are involved in the resistance against the occupation, therefore we don’t need al-Qaida in order to fight the occupation. There is a great difference between Hamas and al-Qaida. We are a Palestinian movement fighting the occupation of Palestinian land. Our struggle is based on this Palestinian land only, unlike al-Qaida which has no territorial limits.

WND: There were reports of rampant weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza while the border was opened. Israeli officials say we’re talking about hundreds of tons of weapons. What kind of weapons was Hamas able to bring into Gaza?

ZUHRI: These reports are not true. There was no weapon transfer. There were only people and families moving from one side of the border to the other.

WND: What is Hamas’ relationship with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad? With Hezbollah?

ZUHRI: Our relations are good with all the honest forces in the Arab world and this includes Assad’s Syria, Hezbollah, and other movements and forces.

Kidnapping part of ‘resistance’

WND: Hamas this week admitted to kidnapping and killing Jerusalem resident Sasson Nuriel, releasing a video of your members interrogating the Jewish merchant with a blindfold strapped around his head. Should Israel expect more kidnappings of its citizens?

ZUHRI: The man that was kidnapped was not a simple Israeli citizen but was a Shabak [Israeli security services] agent. This kidnapping is part of the resistance to the occupation and is part of our struggle to free Palestinian prisoners. We gave Israel many opportunities to free our prisoners. This was part of the understandings [reached in February between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Sharon] and was part of the cease fire.

We declared the cease fire on condition that our prisoners would be released, but the occupier did not respect this and continued to carry prisoners to their jails. Therefore if we will not succeed in getting our prisoners freed in peaceful ways and through negotiations, we will do everything necessary to liberate them, including kidnapping more Israelis.

WND: Israel says Nuriel was a regular citizen, not a Shabak agent. How does his murder impact Hamas’ image internationally while at the same time you’re trying to become the legitimate leaders of the Palestinian people?

ZUHRI: Our image must not be affected because that is a part of the struggle against the occupation, during which Israelis were killed.

WND: Does Hamas believe it will win upcoming Palestinian legislative elections?

ZUHRI: The Palestinian people and the electoral ballots will decide whether we will win the elections, and we must wait for the elections to see the results. Being a part of the government is a question that is too early to answer.

WND: If you win, will Hamas focus on ruling over the Palestinians and abandon its stated goal of destroying Israel?

ZUHRI: There is no link between the decision to participate in the elections and the struggle against Israel. This struggle is to be maintained as long as the occupation of our land continues.