RUTHFULLY YOURS

On the eve of the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya — in charge of the negotiations to release the hostages and reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel — delivered a speech in which he said: “Gaza has offered itself as a sacrifice for the Muslim ummah [nation] and deserves its full support in return.”

Al-Hayya’s statement triggered a wave of angry reactions and condemnations from many Palestinians, especially those from the Gaza Strip who have been facing death and destruction since October 7, 2023, when Hamas and thousands of “ordinary” Palestinians invaded Israel and murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals. Another 251 people were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 55 – dead and alive – remain in captivity.

In Islamic tradition, Eid al-Adha honors the willingness of the patriarch Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God’s command. In the Koran, the story of Abraham’s sacrifice is a pivotal event, showcasing his unwavering obedience to God. Abraham received a vision in a dream to sacrifice his son. Just as he was about to fulfill the vision, God intervenes, replacing his son with a ram.

Like most senior Hamas leaders, al-Hayya and his family members live outside the Gaza Strip, having fled the Gaza Strip before the October 7 attack on Israel. These Hamas leaders are leading safe, often resplendent lives in Qatar, Lebanon, Algeria, Turkey and other comfortable countries.

Palestinians expressed outrage that the senior Hamas official compared them to lambs offered as sacrifices in the terror organization’s jihad (holy war) against Israel. According to Hamas, more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war, which Hamas initiated on October 7, 2023.

For these Palestinians, al-Hayya’s remarks are an example of the total disregard displayed by Hamas leaders for the lives of the residents of the Gaza Strip, who continue to pay a heavy price because of the terror group’s refusal to hand over all the hostages, disarm and relinquish control of Gaza. Hamas, they say, has decided to sacrifice tens of thousands of Palestinians to please its patrons in Qatar and Iran.

Hamza Howidy, a Gaza-born peace and human rights advocate, pointed out that the leaders of Hamas have decided to sacrifice their people in service to Qatar and Iran.

“Khalil al-Hayya’s statement of sacrificing Gaza isn’t a slip of the tongue – it’s the mask coming off. When he says Gaza ‘offered itself as a sacrifice,’ what he means is that the people of Gaza were handed over – not to a cause, not to liberation, but to foreign capitals and thrones that see Palestinian blood as nothing more than leverage.

“Gaza wasn’t ‘offered’- it was ‘traded.’ Traded for relevance in Tehran, applause in Doha, and invitations to summits where men in suits congratulate themselves for their loyalty [to Iran and Qatar] while entire neighborhoods [in the Gaza Strip] are flattened…

“What al-Hayya revealed – with disturbing pride – is that Hamas has never seen Gaza as a society to build or protect, but as a tool to elevate themselves in the eyes of unelected monarchs and ideological overlords. It’s death on commission. It’s turning a population into a spectacle of martyrdom to secure long-term contracts of power and protection from the patrons they truly serve.

“The ‘Muslim nation’ he invokes isn’t some united moral force. It’s a euphemism for the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC. For the Qatari ruling elite who fund the fire from a safe distance, then host the [Hamas] arsonists as statesmen. Hamas offers Gaza as a sacrifice not to God, not to freedom, but to the very forces who benefit most from the endless war – because they know that a Gaza in ruins keeps them relevant, funded, and feared.”

A resident of the Gaza Strip, “Alaa from Gaza,” noted that al-Hayya’s statement proves that the leaders of Hamas living in Qatar are oblivious to the suffering of their people in the Gaza Strip.

“It’s the eve of Eid Al-Adha across the Islamic world, a time that used to bring joy and celebration in Gaza before October 7. But our lives have been stolen….

“People in Gaza, including my family and friends, are furious. They’re asking: how dare he [Khalil al-Hayya] speak in our name while he lives safely abroad with his family in Qatar?…

“His words echo something even more horrifying once said by the late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh: ‘We need the blood of children and women to awaken the spirit of revolution within us.‘

“What kind of ideology is this? What twisted logic allows men living in comfort to turn the suffering of an entire people into a slogan? I can’t describe how infuriated I feel right now. I want to smash my head against the wall. I genuinely cannot understand how this so-called leadership thinks.” [Emphasis in the original]

Zaher Abu Hussein, another Palestinian, commented:

“Khalil al-Hayya offers the blood of Gaza’s children and women as a sacrifice… to the arms of the Supreme Persian (Iranian) Leader….

“After all of Gaza was sacrificed on the altar of the Iranian project, after homes turned into graves, and neighborhoods into ashes, Khalil al-Hayya came out in public to complete the ritual: the ritual of loyalty and submission [to the Iranian regime]…

“Khalil al-Hayya does not represent us. Rather, he represents the Iranian agency in Palestine, he represents the project that has turned the [Palestinian] issue into a hired gun, and the martyrs into negotiating cards. Whoever hands over Gaza to Iran is not from Palestine.”

Abu Karmel, yet another Palestinian, wrote on X:

“In the teachings of Islam and Sharia, there is no such thing as offering human ‘sacrifices’ for a worldly or political purpose. Sacrifices are offered to God, but not in the form of human bodies for the sake of redeeming a group or a political organization, as Khalil al-Hayya and his gang want…

“Did anyone consult the people of Gaza before offering them as ‘sacrifices’ on the altar of the [Muslim] Brotherhood? [Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organization]…

“These statements issued by Hamas leaders, in which they disregard Palestinian blood, makes us wonder about the mental capabilities of this group that views our people in Gaza as sheep and human sacrifices on the altars of their agendas [to serve] the Muslim Brotherhood and Tehran.

“Are these people mentally ill?
Is this the mentality of political leaders who present themselves in the name of the Palestinian people?
Do they suffer from psychological and mental problems that make them make such statements?…

“How long will this [Muslim] Brotherhood gang continue to justify the killing of our people in the name of resistance and religion?”

Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian human rights activist, remarked:

“We are dealing with psychopaths who are willing to sacrifice all of Gaza – as they’ve always made clear. Down with Hamas!”

Respected Palestinian political analyst Fouad Alkhatib, a former resident of the Gaza Strip who moved to the US, denounced Hamas as a “death cult.”

“There’s a social media revolt among Palestinians in Gaza who are furious with remarks made by Hamas’s chief Khalil al-Hayya about Eid Al-Adha. He sent Eid wishes and said that Gaza has presented itself as a ‘sacrificial Qurban,’ or ‘sacrificial lamb’ for all Arab and Muslim nations! I’ve said this time and again: Hamas is a death cult that’s engaged in human sacrifice and must be stopped from being allowed to sacrifice what’s left of Gaza!”

In another post on X, Alkhatib wrote:

“Hamas is a medieval terror organization that’s quite literally engaged in the human sacrifice of the Palestinian people of Gaza. If you still support this evil Islamist group of thugs, you are inherently anti-Palestinian; do not speak about the plight of Palestinians if you do.”

The reactions of these Palestinians to the statement of the Hamas leader signal that a growing number of Palestinians are aware that the Iran-backed terror group does not care about their safety or welfare and is prepared to sacrifice as many people as possible to achieve its goal of killing Jews and destroying Israel.

Such criticism, however, is not enough to remove Hamas from power. If the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip do not want to be treated as sheep for slaughter, they must revolt against Hamas and distance themselves from Qatar and the Iranian regime. Until then, sadly, more Palestinians will continue to be sacrificed to appease the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization and the rulers of Qatar and Iran.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.