Hamas leader says Israel to campaign off Gaza's 'blood' in election

Hamas leader says Israel to campaign off Gaza's 'blood' in election

The leader of Hamas brushed aside the possibility of change from Israel’s upcoming election in an interview on Saturday, saying he expected Israelis to campaign off Gaza’s “blood”. “Whether this or that person comes to power, or this party or another — our people have suffered at the hands of all Israeli parties,” Khalil al-Hayya told the Qatari station Al-Araby. “We absolutely refuse to allow the blood, suffering, and cause of the Palestinian people to serve as fuel for Israeli elections. What matters to us is that our people achieve their goals, aspirations and legitimate rights.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a tight contest as he seeks to stay in power in the October 27 elections. The Israeli premier has vowed in the run-up to the vote not to withdraw troops from Gaza and rejected a US-led peace initiative in which Hamas said it would surrender weapons, a promise Israel views with scepticism. The vote is the first since Hamas led the attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has displaced virtually the entire population of Gaza, damaged or destroyed the vast majority of buildings and killed more than 73,900 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Polls show Netanyahu’s most formidable challenger to be Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who served in Netanyahu’s war cabinet but has accused him of failing strategically. ‘Ready to sit down’ with Abbas The Palestinian Authority in turn has scheduled a legislative election for November 28, which would be the first in two decades, although there are widespread doubts about whether it will go ahead. Hamas won the last election, held in 2006, defeating Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah. Abbas, 90, has since been ruling by decree, with the legislature not allowed to convene and Hamas seizing control of Gaza. Abbas is based in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority wields limited autonomy. “We are ready to sit down with President Abbas to lay the foundations for a national program and achieve genuine unity,” Hayya said. “If the Palestinian elections are postponed, that step must serve as an entry point for putting the Palestinian house in order.” Hamas has been working on an alliance with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah figure born in Gaza who has been an interlocutor with the United States on its peace plan. “In the event of a postponement, the alliance will remain intact and open to all, aiming to forge a unified national front,” Hayya said. It remains uncertain if Hamas could even run in the election, as Abbas has required all candidates to accept the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which has recognised Israel’s right to exist since 1993 at the start of the Oslo peace accords. On the regional front, Hayaa said that Hamas had offered to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis, who have carried out escalating attacks against the kingdom since July. “I hope that this will be accepted,” he said of Hamas’s offer. “Hamas is loyal to these peoples, who are our base.”