Here are some highlights from the speech from Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during today’s rally, which marks 35 years since the founding of the terror organization:
1. We support any armed organization fighting against the occupation (Israel – Abu Ali) of the West Bank, such as “Areen al-Aswood”, Jenin Brigade, and Balata Brigade.
2. We predict the rise of the political right in Israel in 2023, which will lead to the crossing of all the red lines. According to our intelligence assessment, 2023 will be a year with major national milestones, and we must prepare for that.
3. Turning to Israel: We have overthrown your government (referring to the round of fighting which ultimately led to the collapse of the last Israeli government – Abu Ali), and we are capable of overthrowing any future government in Israel.
4. Israel’s (center-left) “Change Government” killed twice as many Palestinians as any other right-wing government.
5. The Israeli government, extreme as it is, activated a self-destruction mechanism and thus strengthened our people and increased the number of opportunities for us to torment it.
6. Before the Israeli elections, we conducted a round of negotiations regarding a possible prisoner swap deal, in which we proposed the following: Female, underage, and sick Palestinian prisoners (including Walid Dakah and Nasser Abu Hamid), as well as prisoners released in the Shalit deal (who Israel has since arrested), be released in exchange for the release of (Israeli civilians) Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.
We also offered to disclose the “black boxes” regarding Goldin and Shaul (i.e. revealing whether the two IDF soldier are dead or alive). We give the “occupation” a deadline, after which we will “close the case of the POWs forever” and their fate will not remain unknown.
