Hamas Leaders in Their Own Words: Civilians, Death, and Strategy

Understanding Hamas requires listening to what Hamas leaders say — in Arabic, to Arabic-language audiences, when they believe the Western press is not paying close attention. MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) translates and archives Arabic-language media. The quotes below are not taken out of context. They are representative of a consistent pattern of Hamas public statements.

Hamas legislator Fathi Hammad (later Hamas's Interior Minister in Gaza, 2009–2014), in a February 2008 speech on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas's own channel), stated explicitly:

"For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine."

This is Hamas's Interior Minister describing the use of women, children, and elderly civilians as human shields — not as a failure of protection, but as a deliberate strategy, and framing it as something Palestinians "excel at."

MEMRI documented this statement with the original Arabic footage.

Hamas senior official Ghazi Hamad, in an October 2023 interview after October 7, stated:

"...the Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth..." (MEMRI translation, LBC interview, October 24, 2023)

In the same interview Hamad said Hamas members are "the victims of the occupation" and argued that its actions were justified.

When the interviewer pushed back on Palestinian civilian casualties, Hamad said Hamas is "not responsible" for those deaths — Israel is.

MEMRI documented and translated this interview. It was also reported by the Times of Israel.

Mosab Hassan Yousef — the son of a founding Hamas member, who worked as an intelligence asset for Israel and later converted to Christianity — has spoken extensively about what Hamas actually wants versus what it tells Western audiences:

"Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians, does not care about the lives of Israelis, does not care about the lives of Americans or anyone. Hamas is not seeking a Palestinian state... [Hamas] is a dogma... the goal is not to establish a Palestinian state. The goal is to build an Islamic caliphate, starting in Palestine, and it requires the elimination of the Jews."

This interview has been viewed millions of times. Yousef's credibility comes from his position inside Hamas's founding family and his years of direct observation.

This aligns with the Hamas Charter (1988), which calls for the killing of Jews as a religious obligation, citing a hadith about Jews hiding behind trees and stones that call out to Muslims to kill them. In 2017 Hamas issued a revised 'Document of General Principles' saying its conflict is with the 'Zionist project', not with Jews, and accepting a state on the 1967 lines as a 'national consensus' formula without recognising Israel; critics, including Israel, called it cosmetic, and the 1988 charter was never formally revoked.

The following quotes come from a widely circulated online compilation. Truth in a Haystack has not verified most of them against a primary recording or transcript; treat them as unverified until each is linked to a primary source (e.g. MEMRI). Quotes we could not trace are marked accordingly and are not relied on in the conclusions below.

Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas political bureau chief, assassinated July 2024):

"We need the blood of the people of Gaza to awaken within us the spirit of the revolution."

Khaled Meshaal (former Hamas political bureau chief, based in Qatar):

"The deaths of the people of Gaza are a tactical loss of the war."

Ghazi Hamad (Hamas senior official — see also separate MEMRI documentation above):

"The people of Gaza are a powerful leverage card in our hands, even if 200,000 or more of them die."

Nizar Rayyan (Hamas military commander, killed in Israeli strike January 2009):

"The higher the bill for death and blood, the closer we get to liberation."

Khalil al-Hayya (Hamas political bureau member):

"Hamas's money belongs to Hamas; it is not for the people."

Moussa Abu Marzook (Hamas deputy political bureau chief):

"The tunnels only serve to protect Hamas; the people of Gaza are the responsibility of the United Nations."

Bassem Naim (Hamas political bureau member, former Gaza Health Minister):

"Casualties are first counted among the resistance fighters and the leaders, not among civilians."

Critics argue the pattern across the verified statements shows Hamas leadership regards Gazan civilian deaths as an asset rather than a liability. The deaths are leverage, propaganda material, and a tool for international pressure — and Hamas's leadership states this openly, in Arabic, to Arab audiences.

When Hamas leaders state in their own words that:

1. They deliberately use civilians as shields
2. Palestinian civilian deaths serve their strategic goals
3. They will repeat October 7 "again and again"
4. Their goal is not a Palestinian state but the elimination of Israel and the killing of Jews

...critics argue the conflict with Hamas cannot be treated as a territorial dispute resolvable through negotiation, because Hamas has repeatedly stated its goal is the elimination of Israel. Others distinguish Hamas from the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which the PLO recognised Israel in 1993.

This does not mean every Palestinian shares these goals. Hamas was elected in 2006 and has ruled Gaza by force since 2007 — the population of Gaza has no mechanism to vote it out. The distinction between Hamas and Palestinian civilians is real and important.

What it does mean: evaluating the conflict as though both sides have symmetrical goals and symmetrical conduct — as though the question is merely who has the more powerful military — requires ignoring what one party has explicitly and repeatedly said it wants.