Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad appeared in a TV interview on Wednesday, his first public appearance since the Israeli strike targeting the terror group’s leaders in Qatar last week.
Hamad, who fled Gaza shortly before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre sparked the ongoing war, confirmed in an interview with the Al-Jazeera network that he was at the site when it was attacked. His appearance was the latest sign that the attack had failed to kill the terrorist organization’s leadership.`
“We were discussing a ceasefire proposal, less than an hour after the meeting began, we heard an explosion,” he said, referring to Hamas’s leadership.
“We are experienced in the sounds of missiles and understood it was an Israeli strike. We left the place quickly, and thank God we survived,” he said. “God destined us to survive this treacherous aggression against us and sister Qatar.”
Six people, including a Qatari officer, were killed in the strike, but all of the terror group’s senior leaders are thought to have survived. Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political leadership since 2012.
Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas’s political leaders with the September 9 strike prompted international condemnation, but a defiant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will.”
Damage is seen after an Israeli strike targeted a compound that hosted Hamas’ political leadership in Doha, Qatar, on September 10, 2025 (AFP)
Hamad additionally told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Washington lacks credibility as a mediator for a ceasefire deal, citing what he called the group’s “bitter” experience with the truce efforts.
In response to Trump’s warning that there would be “hell to pay” if Hamas used hostages as human shields, Hamad said the US president “doesn’t scare us,” and claimed that captives are held according to “beliefs and Islamic principles.”
“We deal with the prisoners according to our values, and despite the massacres against our people, the one putting them in danger is the [Israeli] occupation itself,” Hamad added.
A composite image of five members of Hamas’s leadership targeted by Israel in Qatar on September 9, 2025, L-R: Zaher Jabarin, Khaled Mashaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Muhammad Ismail Darwish, Nizar Awadallah. (Mahmud Hams/Louai Beshara/KHAMENEI.IR/AFP)
A number of hostages have been murdered by terrorists in captivity. Hostages who have been rescued and released have described being tortured, including enduring beatings, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and starvation, while their captors had no shortage of food. A recent video of a hostage showed him emaciated and forced to dig his own grave.
The ongoing war began when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel’s communities on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by terrorists in the October 7 attack, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive. There are grave concerns for two others. The remainder are thought to be dead.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 65,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it had killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas fights from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 465.
AFP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
