(12 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon - 12 December 2023
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1. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas' political bureau:
"The only explanation I have is that the resistance, by its action, and the Palestinian people, by its steadfastness, pushed Biden to realise that the Israeli military operation is a crazy act, the repercussions (of the war) will be catastrophic on the entity (Israel) and on the results of elections in which Biden might lose his seat in the White House."
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2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas' political bureau:
""He (the Israeli soldier) is destroying these products (toys) because humanity does not exist for them. Because he does not know the value of children playing, because he does not realise that children have the right to live a life of equality. But he knows one thing, which is that those children should be killed because they are a target for the Zionist entity."
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3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas' political bureau:
(Speaking about the men who were detained and shown lined in the streets while stripped to their underwear)
"This scene that the occupation is, is an attempt to break our will and to show his power over the people. Don't you remember this picture, this is what the American, who is a supporter of the occupation, in Abu Ghraib prison? How they abused the Iraqi people? These pictures are the same images that we see today at the hands of this Nazi occupation - they are the extension of the same culture - from the American administration to the Zionist entity and vice versa."
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STORYLINE:
A senior Hamas official said US President Joe Biden realises the Israeli military operation "is a crazy act" after Biden made comments that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza.
Biden spoke at a fundraiser for his re-election.
"The repercussions will be disastrous for the regime (Israel) and for the results of the elections for Biden, who may lose his place in the White House in these upcoming elections," added Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas' political bureau.
He also blasted Israeli troops for destroying toys at a shop in Gaza and the detention of scores of men who were stripped down to their underwear.
A video aired during a news conference in Beirut showed an Israeli soldier allegedly throwing toys inside a shop in Gaza. Hamdan described the video as "disgusting."
"He (the Israeli soldier) is destroying these products because humanity does not exist for them," Hamdan said. "He does not understand the value of children's need to play. He does not know that children have the right to live a good life."
"He knows one thing, which is that those children should be killed because they are a target for the Zionist entity," Hamdan added.
Speaking about the men who were detained and shown lined in the streets while stripped to their underwear, Hamdan said these are "crimes similar to what the Nazis did to the Jews and what the Americans did at the Abu Ghraib prison" near Baghdad during U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Hamdan said the men detained by Israeli troops included journalists, doctors and engineers.
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