Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas’s paramilitary al-Qassam Brigades, on Tuesday praised the Iranian missile attack on Israel and called for “escalation” on every front of the conflict.
Abu Ubaida spoke on the 200th day since Hamas launched the Gaza war by brutally attacking Israeli civilians on October 7. Although the ensuing war has not gone well for Hamas, he said the terrorist organization was eager for more fighting and wanted more Middle Eastern powers to follow Iran’s lead by attacking Israel.
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on April 13, ostensibly to retaliate for an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria on April 1 that killed several senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Iranian attack was almost completely ineffective as Israeli, U.S., British, and other allied forces intercepted Iran’s weapons in flight, a fact tacitly acknowledged by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday. Khamenei said the number of missiles that actually hit anything in Israel was of “secondary importance,” while the “main issue” was Iran’s symbolic “emergence” as a military power.
The Hamas spokesman on Tuesday similarly insisted Iran’s attack “set new rules, drew important equations, and confused the enemy and those behind it,” without necessarily destroying anything of importance.
A man walks past a billboard calling for the return of about 240 hostages who were abducted during the Oct. 7, Hamas attack on Israel. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Abu Ubaida demanded more violence in the West Bank and Jordan, which helped to intercept many of the drones Iran launched against Israel on April 13.
“We call on the Jordanian people to step up their actions and raise their voices,” he said.
Even as he demanded “escalation,” Abu Ubaida insisted Hamas is still involved in ceasefire negotiations, although it has not budged on its maximalist demands. Those demands include Israel withdrawing completely from Gaza before Hamas even thinks about releasing any of the civilian hostages it seized on October 7.
“The government of the occupation is stalling in reaching a hostages-swap deal and is trying to obstruct efforts by the mediators to reach a ceasefire agreement,” the Hamas spokesman claimed.
Hamas perpetrated another crime against humanity on Wednesday by releasing a video of one of its hostages, 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Hamas periodically releases such videos as a form of psychological warfare against Israel.
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system launches to intercept missiles fired from Iran, in central Israel, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Neuberg)
Goldberg-Polin’s left arm is missing below the elbow in the video, having possibly been severed in a grenade blast when he was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7.
In the video, which was a little under three minutes long, the hostage referred to spending 200 days in captivity and missing a holiday, which would likely have been Passover on Monday. However, security analysts pointed out there was no way to know when the video was filmed or if Goldberg-Polin is still alive today as his terrorist captors could have made him say anything at any time in a pre-recorded video.
The Biden administration reportedly received the video two days ago, notified Goldberg-Polin’s family, and tasked the FBI hostage recovery unit with examining the tape for evidence.
“This video is another signal that Hamas is undeterred and wants to abuse us, the families of the hostages,” said the Tikva Forum, a group of hostage families. “Our hearts go out to the Goldberg-Polin family, and we grieve with them for the cruelty and disgust of Hamas.”
The Tikva Forum also criticized the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not going hard enough on Hamas, advising it to use even tougher tactics such as annexing Gaza territory and cutting off humanitarian aid shipments to pressure the terrorists to release their hostages.
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