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WATCH: Hamas Official Says 50 of Those Killed During Riots Were Members

by TheTower.org Staff |

In a clip released by Israel, an official of Hamas, the terrorist group that exercises complete political and military control over the Gaza Strip, acknowledged that 50 of those killed during Monday’s violent riots belonged to Hamas.

Salah Bardawil told an interviewer that of the “62 people martyred, 50 were Hamas.”

The Times of Israel reported that the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza had previously said that 60 Gazans had died in the riots, which saw rioters throw firebombs and shoot at Israel troops. IDF Spokesman Jonathan Conricus posted the clip and added, “Take his word for it. This was no peaceful protest.”

It would also mean that the members of terror groups who were killed in the rioting would be 53, as Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed three.

Fathi Hamad, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, called on Gaza’s youth to continue the riots, saying “better death than humiliation.”

Previously, Israel had charged that 24 of the fatalities were determined to be members of terrorist groups, though most were from Hamas. Israel determined those numbers from claims by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad taking credit for the martyrdom of their members in addition to an investigation with Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet.

Eight of the dead terrorists were killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip as they attempted to breach the border fence with Israel.

A Gaza doctor told the Associated Press that an eight-month-old girl who died, did not die from inhaling tear gas as Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry had claimed, but from a preexisting medical condition.

In the Gaza Strip about 50,000 people rioted at 13 locations along the security fence on Monday, the same day the ceremony was held marking the relocation of the United States embassy to Jerusalem. The IDF described the violence as “unprecedented” and said it was worse than the violence of the previous weeks.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported that during the riots on Monday, many women were present in the front lines of the riots, used by Hamas as human shields. They also said that Hamas dispatched operatives to the border, including children and adolescents, “to carry out violent acts, vandalize security installations, and even cross the fence.”

Hamas also turned away two trucks from Israel loaded with medical supplies that Israel had sent through Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel reopened the crossing had been burned by rioters three times in recent weeks to allow emergency humanitarian aid into Gaza.

[Photo: قناة بلدنا الإعلامية Baladna live / YouTube ]

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