Ex-leader in exile:

Auto-saved draft

Meshaal (pictured here in an archive photo from May 2017) was the top Hamas leader from 1996 to 2017.

(Bild: AFP/Karim Jaafar)

Former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (pictured), who lives in exile, believes that the radical Islamic Palestinian organization is still ready to fight one year after the start of the Gaza war. 

Although the group has suffered heavy losses, it is still recruiting fighters, producing weapons and will rise "like a phoenix from the ashes", he said in an interview with the Reuters news agency. Hamas is still capable of fighting and can plan ambushes against Israeli troops.

"Hamas is still recruiting young men"
"We have lost some of our ammunition and weapons, but Hamas is still recruiting young men and continues to manufacture a large proportion of its ammunition and weapons," Meshaal, who holds a senior position under the top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, told the Reuters news agency.

He did not give details. "Palestinian history is made up of cycles," the 68-year-old explained. "We go through phases in which we lose martyrs and lose some of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix."

According to Meshaal, he sees no prospects for peace as long as the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in power in Israel. Israel, on the other hand, blames Hamas, whose founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel, for the failure of peace efforts.

Was the top Hamas leader for 20 years
Meshaal, who survived an Israeli poison attack in 1997, was the top Hamas leader from 1996 to 2017. He remains influential within Hamas and is now widely regarded as its diplomatic face. He is one of six Hamas leaders against whom the US Department of Justice has filed terrorism charges for the attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered the Gaza war.

Middle East experts see Meshaal's statements as a sign that Hamas will continue to fight regardless of losses. It could also benefit from the fact that Israel has not yet presented a plan for the future of the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, said Joost Hiltermann from the International Crisis Group think tank. This could allow Hamas to re-establish itself, albeit possibly not with the same strength or in the same form as before.