A top Hamas official abruptly ended a CNN interview on Saturday after he was asked if the terror organization accepts responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian civilians killed in the war.
Hamas member Osama Hamdan suddenly ended his interview with CNN correspondent Jim Sciutto after he was asked if Hamas regretted its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians — as Gaza Health Ministry officials say 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war.
In response, Hamdan accused Sciutto, who was reporting from Tel Aviv, of taking Israel’s side in the decades-long conflict.
“Well, it seems to me you are giving the Israelis the right to kill Palestinians when you ask if we feel regret for what Israel has done,” Hamdan said. “You have to understand that Israel has been killing the Palestinians for the last 76 years.”
The two then went back on forth as Hamdan accused Sciutto of only viewing the conflict through “Israeli eyes.”
“You didn’t see the Israelis killing thousands of Palestinians in those 20 years,” Hamdan said, claiming Sciutto wasn’t knowledgable of the thousands of Palestinians who were killed in the 2008 and 2014 wars in Gaza.
“Actually, I was here in 2014, and in 2008,” Sciutto said, adding that the network had covered Palestinian civilian deaths “quite closely.”
“What you’re saying is factually not true. I was here for both of those conflicts. My question is does Hamas accept any responsibility for the deaths of its own people in Gaza?” Sciutto said.
Hamdan and Sciutto go back and forth, cutting each other off repeatedly as the CNN correspondent tries to get him to answer his question.
“You can’t ask and answer by yourself. Either you let me answer, or you can finish that talking point yourself,” Hamdan responds, eventually telling Sciutto, “You just want to listen to yourself and the Israelis” before ending the interview.
The conflict began Oct. 7 after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people — most of them civilians — and forcing roughly 250 hostages to Gaza.
Over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out 10 months ago, the territory’s Health Ministry said last week.
Israel’s offensive has also wounded 92,401 people and displaced over 85% of the population from their homes, the ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its toll.
With Post wires.
