Hamas fighters had ISIS flags amid massacre, Israel says
Hamas fighters carried Islamic State flags with them during Saturday’s attack on Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces said Thursday, posting on social media photos of the infamous black ISIS banner apparently found in one militant’s belongings.
The presence of ISIS flags in Hamas ranks will only deepen accusations that the two terrorist groups are linked by their brutality and lack of respect for innocent human life. Israeli officials are making the case that Hamas, given its murder of more than 1,200 Israelis during the rampage, is the more vicious of the two outfits.
“Hamas brought ISIS flags to massacre Israeli children, women and men. Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization. Hamas is worse than ISIS,” the IDF said in a social media post.
The Islamic State last decade established a religious caliphate across swaths of Iraq and Syria. A yearslong, U.S.-led military campaign has largely reduced the group from a terrorist army boasting thousands of fighters to a much more limited organization capable of small-scale operations but without the capability to hold territory.
ISIS became known for its horrific tactics, the same displayed during the Hamas assault, said Israeli officials.
“The atrocities carried out by Hamas have not been seen since the atrocities of ISIS.
Children bound and executed with the rest of their families, young girls and boys shot in the back, executed and other atrocities that I will not describe here,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week. “We have always known what Hamas is. Now the whole world knows. Hamas is ISIS.”
Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday vowed that Hamas, like ISIS, will be destroyed.
“They should be spit out from the community of nations. Just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed,” the Israeli leader said during an appearance alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who traveled to Israel this week.
“There will be many difficult days ahead, but I have no doubt that the forces of civilization will win,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Source » washingtontimes.com
