"Israel is a country that has no place on our land," Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Lebanese news outlet LBCI news this week, according to a report and translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released on Wednesday.
"We must remove that country," he continued.
Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated; We Are Victims - Everything We Do Is Justified #Hamas #Gaza #Palestinians pic.twitter.com/kXu3U0BtAP
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 1, 2023
"We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth. Because we have the determination...to fight."
Civilian casualties and the price of war
Hamad continued, talking about the civilian price of the attack that has been paid on both sides of the war. He expressed that the killings at the Re'im music festival were the result of "complications on the ground."
"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."
He also said: "The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood, and tears. It's Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Full stop.
"Nobody should blame us. On October 7, October 10, October one million - everything we do is justified."
Hamad on the BBC
Last week, Hamad stormed out of an interview with the BBC after he was asked about the terrorist group’s massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7.
During the interview, Hamad reiterated claims made starting a few days after the massacre that Hamas did not intend to kill any civilians during its assault.