Hamas official ends interview when asked if he takes responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza

A senior Hamas official abruptly ended an interview with CNN on Saturday after being asked whether the terrorist organization bears responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian civilians killed in the war.

Hamas member Osama Hamdan abruptly ended his interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto after being asked whether Hamas regretted its October 7 attack on Israel, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians — while Gaza health officials say 40,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in the war.

In his response, Hamdan accused Syuto, who was reporting from Tel Aviv, of siding with Israel in the decades-long conflict.

“Well, it seems to me that you are giving the Israelis the right to kill Palestinians when you ask them if we feel remorse for what Israel has done,” Hamdan said. “You have to understand that Israel has been killing Palestinians for the past 76 years.”

The two sides then exchanged accusations, with Hamdan accusing Syuto of looking at the conflict only through “Israeli eyes.”

“You didn’t see the Israelis kill thousands of Palestinians in those 20 years,” Hamdan said, claiming that Sciutto was unaware of the thousands of Palestinians killed in the 2008 and 2014 wars in Gaza.

“In fact, I was here in 2014, and in 2008,” Sciutto said, adding that the network covered the killing of Palestinian civilians “closely.”

“What you’re saying is not true in practice. I was here during both of these conflicts. My question is, does Hamas bear any responsibility for the killing of its people in Gaza?” Sciutto said.

Hamdan and Sciutto chat back and forth, repeatedly interrupting each other as the CNN reporter tries to get him to answer his question.

“You can’t ask and answer yourself. Either let me answer, or you can finish this point yourself,” Hamdan responded, then finally told Sciutto: “You just want to listen to yourself and to the Israelis,” before ending the interview.

The conflict began on October 7 after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people – most of them civilians – and forcing about 250 hostages into Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry said last week that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out 10 months ago.

The ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip added that the Israeli attack also injured 92,401 people and displaced more than 85 percent of the population from their homes.

It does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death toll.

With mail wires.