DOHA: 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.
“They want our blood to serve as fuel for these elections,” he said.
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 skepticism.
The vote is the first since Hamas led the deadliest ever attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, with militants storming into southern Israel and killing 1,221 people and dragging 251 others as hostages to Gaza.
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, which operates under Hamas and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
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.
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