by Our Foreign Affairs Editor
“We need today to stop asking the victims to do more because the victims, the Palestinian victims, have offered and have done everything required by them in the first stage,” Khaled Qaddoumi says in an exclusive interview with the Sri Lanka Guardian, adding, “But unfortunately, the Israeli forces are still occupying more than 60 percent of Gaza. Their forces are not withdrawing outside, the borders are not opened in a proper way in order to allow the aids to efflux inside Gaza. And even the rebuilding items are not allowed, not even a single truck, not even material for the rebuilding. So there is nothing to talk about the other conditions like disarmament, like other things.”
Khaled Qaddoumi is a senior member of the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas, best known as Hamas’s representative in Tehran, Iran. In this role, he acts as a political and diplomatic link between Hamas leadership and Iranian authorities, representing the organisation’s positions on international platforms and coordinating regional support. Qaddoumi has been a visible voice on Gaza, the Palestinian cause, and the movement’s political and military strategy. He has commented frequently on humanitarian crises, Israel’s military actions, and international diplomatic efforts, often emphasising the rights of Palestinians under occupation and Hamas’s role as both a political and social movement.
I began the interview by noting the passage of time since our last meeting in a Middle Eastern capital and the dramatic changes in Gaza and the region. Qaddoumi reflects on the scale of the crisis and Israel’s ongoing military operations, saying, “Unfortunately, Israel’s actual face has been exposed in front of the international community and you have seen how the narrative clicked and everyone was opposing the Israeli criminals and Israel actually in a diplomatic forum is isolated at the level of the media, social media is isolated and because of their crimes against our people over there. It’s almost 72,000 martyrs and we have more than 100,000 injured. 70% of them are ladies and children and lately the investigative reports are talking about increasing the figure of the killed persons in Gaza from the Palestinian sides by the Israeli criminal attacks and they are talking about horrible figures and separating something of 200,000 killed and that is because of the type of the ammunition which has been provided for the Israelis, unfortunately, particularly by the American administration.”
He highlights the destructive capacity of the weapons used, stating, “We’re talking about hammer 84 that can create a fireball of the temperature of more than 3,000 degrees centigrade when it will be thrown over a refugee camp or over a tent or over a house and create everything into ashes and sorry, render every human into ashes.”
When I asked how Hamas views Israel’s current demands for full disarmament and other conditions, Qaddoumi emphasised that the burden cannot fall on the victims, saying, “Irrespective of President Trump’s 20 points peace plan, we are not witnessing a real pressure over Israel. So Israel today is violating still, instead of the ceasefire, they are killing more people and okay that we thank God that the genocide has stopped in its shape but still daily we are having at an average of seven to ten people have been killed by the Israeli attacks and raids by airplanes from the Israeli forces. So it’s not disarmament of Hamas, it’s not the submitting of the dead bodies which we have done everything. We need today to stop asking the victims to do more because the victims, the Palestinian victims, have offered and has done everything required by them in the first stage.”
He elaborated on the principle behind resistance, saying, “Then when we talk about disarming of Hamas, you need to understand, we are students of the political science and history, know that the resistance is a reaction to actual action of occupation. So let us talk today about the actual action to be stopped, that the Israeli forces have to evacuate the Palestinian areas. The international law is saying this thing, the resolution of the United Nations is saying this thing. So people have to focus on the actual thing. We should not put the cart in front of the horse. The actual thing which is needed is not to disarm Hamas, but to make Israel abide by the international world. By the law, they have to finish the occupation. The Palestinian independent sovereign state has to be established, then we can talk about everything as human to human. But for now, we are in a state of war.”
On leadership continuity following the loss of key figures, Qaddoumi said, “Hamas is a viable, coherent institution. We observe democratic norms and we have continuous action of the hierarchy building. For moral values, martyrdom and the sacrificing of ourselves for the sake of our homeland, for the sake of our people, that also push us and energise us for more sacrifice, for more action to move forward for the freedom. What we are looking for today is not the matter of losing one leader or two, but how to proceed further to enable our people to build up their nation, sovereign state, and move forward. Thank God, we’ve managed to have our own individual local elections at the level of the institution, I mean the movement itself. We have filled all the spaces created due to the martyrdom of our leaders. We are also moving forward towards the central election and we will be emerging strong and strong day by day because of the experiences we gain, because of the trust and confidence of our people, our brave people who have stood and cherished us and they have always supported the leadership of the movement in order to proceed further to return.”
I asked him about humanitarian needs and Gaza’s reconstruction. Qaddoumi said, “And even the rebuilding items are not allowed, not even a single truck, not even material for the rebuilding. So there is nothing to talk about the other conditions like disarmament, like other things. Before the war, even before that, we were having under embargo 1,000 trucks daily full of milk and powdered milk and the medicine and the needed food for the people. Though at that time, under the embargo situation, the 1,000 truck was less. Today, we have agreed over 600, which is very less, but again 600 trucks are not coming and unfortunately, most of those trucks which they are allowed to get in, they are business style and not the donation.”
On what criteria Hamas would consider essential for ceasefire or peace talks, Qaddoumi explained, “Now, we have agreed to go into the indirect talks with Israel for the sake of concluding a fair and just deal for our people that can grant peace, that can grant a stop of genocide, that can grant the rebuilding of Gaza, that can grant the preparation for the next day of war for a political solution that can make our people live as free as any nation in the world. We’ve put our conditions, we’ve compromised on many things like the political situation and then we’ve agreed over that to go for a technocrat committee to run the situation in order to… Palestinian technocrats, I mean, which has been welcomed by the mediators and welcomed even by the American administration, that technocrat committee has been formed by the Palestinian technocrats and patriotic personalities in order to do two things. One, to rebuild Gaza. Second, to prepare the ground for the upcoming election. But unfortunately, now it’s been two weeks, almost two weeks, that this committee has been formed and Israelis are not allowing them to get into Gaza and imagine that the whole international community is on one side and unfortunately Israel is on the other side and that is because of the support of the administration. We are doing nothing, we’re not able to do nothing because of the stubborn situation of Israelis and also it’s the responsibility of Americans and also the mediators to pressurise Israelis enough to abide by the deal.”
On the international mediation process, including the Board of Peace, he added, “Lately, the so-called Board of Peace has convened and unfortunately, the Palestinians are not called into that board. The criminal Israeli Netanyahu is welcomed over there in that board. That won’t work, that will encourage Netanyahu to do whatever he is doing and will not push him to abide by the deal and to open the borders for the children to be able to live as normal.”
Speaking about Hamas’s political and regional strategy, Qaddoumi said, “We are continuing our efforts to talk to the mediators, especially in Egypt and Qatar and Turkey also, in order to activate them to carry on their responsibility, to be able to allow the trucks and the aids into Gaza and that is happening with the least happening.”
Asked about integrating upcoming elections into the organisation’s strategy, he said, “Thank God, we’ve managed to have our own individual local elections at the level of the institution, I mean the movement itself. As I told you, we have filled all the spaces created due to the martyrdom of our leaders. We are also moving forward towards the central election and we will be emerging strong and strong day by day because of the experiences we gain, because of the trust and confidence of our people.”
On protecting civilians while maintaining operational security, Qaddoumi said, “The resistance is a reaction to actual action of occupation… We are living under occupation. We have the right to resist and to defend ourselves.”
When asked about the impact of sanctions and external pressures, he replied, “Unfortunately, the international community did not empower us though we have emerged in a transparent democratic process of election. They did not allow us even a single day to run the scene after that. The international community should understand the new trend among the Palestinian people, the new demands which have been supported by the streets in the five continents, the youngsters who have thronged into the street to oppose the Israeli crimes and Israeli attacks against our people and also to cherish Hamas and to cherish the Palestinian leadership to proceed further for fair and just political solutions.”
On Hamas’s long-term vision, Qaddoumi said, “Hamas is a national patriotic movement. It has gained the trust of the people and the nation and emerged victorious in a viable and a fair transparent election in 2006 and also carried the gun at one hand, that gun which has a holistic approach of resistance under the international law, legitimate and right also to defend their people against occupation the time the international community left us no option for the political solutions. On the other hand, it carried in the front opposite to the gun the responsibility of granting a dignitorious and a good life for our people.”
He continued, “The vision and strategies is to integrate into the regional and international system as responsible people who can manage to proceed further based on the support of the nation, based on the democratic norms, based on the international law. This holistic approach will empower us to proceed further but there is one condition for that, that the international community should understand the new trend among the Palestinian people… So our vision is very clear that we want to establish a Palestinian political entity that is free, independent, without occupation and also to proceed further as any viable free nation in the world. We don’t need wars, we don’t need more bloodshedding and we want our people to be educated people. They are beautiful nations, they want to live in peace as any other peaceful nation in the world. This is the least demand of any nation in the world.”
Qaddoumi explains the wider geopolitical situation: “Unfortunately, we have an enemy who doesn’t respect the international law, who doesn’t respect the resolutions and the frame of references which have been agreed upon mutually, doesn’t respond or doesn’t respect or even value anything they sign on. That is to be tackled by the international community. Otherwise, we are in a vicious cycle of wars and unfortunately more blood over there. What we are looking for is we should not have more wars, we should not have more bloodshedding. We love our children, we love our people, but not on the expense of our legitimate right.”
He adds, “So we have two ways simply, either the international community which has improvised laws and rules and regulations to build up an independent, sovereign state for the Palestinians. Unfortunately, they are not implementing that because we are having a rogue state called Israel. There is no legitimacy for that state to violate the laws and to proceed with such police attitude against our people and against the will of the international community.”
On the continuation of resistance, Qaddoumi says, “On the other hand, the other option is to defend ourselves with all means which we have as far as occupation is there.”
