Mossad attempted an assassination of senior Hamas official Khaled Meshaal in Jordan, by spraying him with poison, in 1997 but was forced by Jordan's outraged King Hussein to provide the antidote
Meshaal is now considered among the contenders to become the new leader of Hamas -- providing the antidote was not a smart move....
[another! dime a dozen] Top Hamas official Khaled Meshaal called on Wednesday for a resumption of suicide bombings in the West Bank, Arabic media reported and encouraged Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause to engage in “actual resistance against the Zionist entity”
According to Sky News Arabia, during an address at a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Meshaal said that the Hamas terror group wanted to “return to [suicide] operations”
The war with Israel in Gaza as well as the frequent IDF raids against Palestinian terror entities in the West Bank, could “only be addressed by open conflict” Meshaal was quoted as having said
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“They are fighting us with open conflict and we are confronting them with open conflict”
“The enemy has opened the conflict on all fronts, seeking us all, whether we fight or not” Meshaal said, appearing to refer to the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July 2024
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the killing of Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar and had been the head of the terror group’s politburo wing
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“I repeat my call to everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the actual resistance against the Zionist entity” added Meshaal
Meshaal had briefly been seen as a frontrunner to replace Haniyeh before the reins were handed over to Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar
Earlier in August, Hamas claimed responsibility for an explosion in Tel Aviv which it said was a suicide bombing conducted as a joint operation with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and vowed that further, similar attacks would follow
One person was moderately injured in the August 18, 2024 attack, when the bomb detonated inside the backpack of the man carrying it, killing him instantly
Suicide bombings in Israel have been rare since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s when hundreds of Israelis were killed in a series of deadly bombings
In the wake of the intifada, Israel constructed the West Bank security barrier that has been credited with helping thwart further bombing attempts
Recently, amid the war in Gaza, Israeli security authorities have identified attempts by Hamas and other terror groups in the West Bank to return to carry out such attacks
In March of this year 2024 a would-be suicide bomber was killed while trying to infiltrate into Israel from the West Bank Other attempted attacks have been foiled in recent months at earlier stages
