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Hamas Official Says US Withdrawal from Afghanistan Will Result in World Accepting Expulsion of Israel

A senior Hamas official said in an August 19 interview on the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV that the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan will result in the world accepting the expulsion of Israel from the region.
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August 26, 2021
U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load passengers aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) on August 24, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Forces Europe-Africa via Getty Images)

A senior Hamas official said in an August 19 interview on the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV that the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan will result in the world accepting the expulsion of Israel from the region.

The Middle East Media Research Institute reported that the official, Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, argued that the Taliban’s expulsion of the U.S. legitimized “the expulsion of the occupation. This means that what Hamas is doing here to expel the [Israeli] occupation is legitimate. If the world accepted it [in Afghanistan], why shouldn’t it be accepted with regard to Gaza? A liberation endeavor is different from a ‘terrorist’ endeavor, as they call it.”

He added that the Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel “will flee too, because the removal of the Israeli entity is a Quranic truth that we must work on implementing now.”

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer tweeted, “Hamas leader voices misconception that is root cause of the conflict. He’s boosted by the removal of US troops from Afghanistan and of historic Roman, Persian, British and French occupiers. But a Jew in Judea is not a foreign occupier. She’s in her ancient, indigenous homeland.”

Muslims Against Antisemitism also tweeted that Al-Zahhar’s remarks were “genocidal talk from the Islamist Hamas group who take inspiration from Taliban extremists. Extremist groups becoming emboldened as the US exits Afghanistan.”

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