On October 24, 2023, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad threatened that his Iran-backed terror group would carry out more massacres against Israelis -- time and again until Israel was annihilated. Referring to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel that resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, Hamad said:
"The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas uses to describe its October 7 slaughter] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth.... Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs."
Hamad, whose group continues to hold captive 50 Israeli hostages (only 20 of whom are believed to be alive) repeated Hamas's call for the elimination of Israel:
"The existence of Israel is illogical. The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood, and tears."
Hamad made the threat from Qatar, where he and several other leaders of Hamas have been leading comfortable lives for the past few years. Qatar and Turkey are among the few countries that continue to host and protect the leaders of the Palestinian terror group whose members committed the worst crimes against Jews since the Holocaust. Hamad and other Hamas leaders have no problem boasting about the October 7 massacres and threatening to launch similar attacks against Israel from their villas and hotel suites in Doha and Istanbul. The Hamas leaders feel safe because they know they enjoy the luxurious support of governments far away from the fighting in Gaza.
On July 25, 2025, Hamad gave an interview to an Arab television station from Qatar. This time, however, he sounded different. Asked about the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip because of the war Hamas launched nearly two years ago, Hamad said that his group's primary goal now was to end the war with Israel. "This is a painful and horrific war," he remarked. "We fully understand the pain and suffering of our people in Gaza." Hamad went on to praise the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for their "steadfastness and patience" during the war.
The Hamas leader's recent statements came as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to complain about death, destruction and lack of food. According to Hamas sources, more than 55,000 Palestinians have died since the beginning of the war sparked by the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Hamad's statements also came shortly after US President Donald J. Trump announced that Hamas does not want to release the Israeli hostages and reach a ceasefire deal.
"I think they [Hamas] want to die, and it's very, very bad," Trump said. "It got to be a point where you're gonna have to finish the job."
Hamad and the Hamas leadership are in no rush to release the hostages or reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel because they would like to see more Palestinians sacrificed as "martyrs." As Hamad said two years ago, "We are called a nation of martyrs."
Hamas's leaders do not care if another 50,000 Palestinians are "martyred" in the war they started in 2023. The more bodies pile up, the more they can blame Israel. Hamas's leaders seem convinced that the international community is on their side. Hamas tells the international community that Israel is killing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In response, many in the international community rush to condemn Israel. Buoyed by the condemnations, Hamas then calls on Palestinians to display more "patience and steadfastness" and encourages them to continue sacrificing themselves as "martyrs."
Hamad has the wakkaha (effrontery) to tell the Palestinians who have fallen victim to the death and destruction brought upon them by their October 7 atrocities that Hamas "understands" their pain and suffering. It is easy for someone well-fed and sitting in a villa or hotel in Doha to talk about the suffering and pain of others in a war far away.
Hamad and the Hamas leaders sheltering in Doha and Istanbul should be apologizing to the two million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip instead of praising them for their "patience, resolve and steadfastness." In fact, they should be arrested and put on trial for their crimes against both Israelis and Palestinians.
If Hamas leaders really cared about the suffering and pain of their people, they would have released all the hostages, disarmed and relinquished control of the Gaza Strip long ago. Hamas leaders, however, seem determined to turn all the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip into a "nation of martyrs." Hamas wants more October 7-style attacks because it wants to see more Palestinians sacrificed as "martyrs" in its jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.
Hamas leaders are selling illusions to their people that they are winning the war and that it is not impossible to exterminate Israel. They are telling the Palestinians that, thanks to their patience and steadfastness, as well as daily attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza, Israel will soon be defeated.
Hamas also has no problem lying to Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff, as they have probably already figured out.
After months of direct and indirect negotiations with Hamas, Trump and Witkoff have finally understood that Hamas is not acting in good faith and, as Trump put it, "want to die." To be more accurate, it is not Hamas's leaders who want to die. Instead, they want ordinary Palestinians to die so that the leaders can stay in power forever and remain wealthy -- some are, or were, billionaires.
Those who actually know Hamas have always been aware that the terror group never acted in good faith. Hamas's leaders have never hesitated to murder anyone who stands in their way, whether Israelis or Palestinians.
Since its establishment in the late 1980s, Hamas has been consistent and clear about its goals: the elimination of Israel through jihad. That is the real reason Hamas has never accepted any peace process with Israel. That is also the real reason Hamas views as traitors those Palestinians who recognize Israel's right to exist and are willing to make peace with Israel.
The only reason Hamas's leaders might want a ceasefire is to allow their members to rearm and regroup. The leaders want to ensure that after the war with Israel, they will continue to hold onto power in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Hamas's leaders evidently do not mind if dozens of Palestinians are killed and wounded every day, because the international pressure is directed against Israel.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
