“Netanyahu is playing with fire,… our fight is a national fight, but Netanyahu is turning it into a religious fight,” Meshaal was quoted as saying in the interview aired on Sky News, adding that the Israeli prime minister was "guilty in all circumstances" for rising violence in the West Bank.
Meshaal referred to the recent incident of Israel blocking entrance to Muslims to the Holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Temple Mount, and new construction of housing for Israelis on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem. Following the Al-Aqsa entrance ban, a Jewish synagogue was attacked by two Palestinian men.
The Hamas leader said the Palestinians' violent reactions were spontaneous. "The Palestinian people no longer have anything to lose in light of the continuation of the occupation and settlements, stealing the land, the attacks on the women and children and the Holy sites," Meshaal was quoted as saying in the interview.
Hamas, an Islamist political and militant group, seeks the creation of an independent state of Palestine and wants Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it occupied after the 1967 war. Hamas also governs the Gaza Strip independently of the Palestinian Authority.
In October, Palestinians worked out a draft UN Security Council resolution that defines strict time limits for Israel to end its occupation and remove settlements before November 2016.
