Senior Hamas Official Fathi Hamad: Mosques in Israel Must Be Liberated, Purified from Filth of Occupation

Fathi Hamad, the head of Hamas' General Administrative Committee, said in a June 19, 2019 speech that aired on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) that mosques should be scholarly, social, Jihadi, and political institutions, and he called on the Arab and Islamic nation to help the Palestinians liberate the mosques that are "languishing under the Zionist occupation" in Haifa, Safed, Acre, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere in Israel. He said that these mosques have been turned into pubs and dens of vice by the Zionists and that they, along with the Al-Aqsa Mosque, must be liberated and purified from the "filth of the occupation."

Fathi Hamad: "We want the mosque to be a scholarly, active, educational, social, Jihadi, and political institution. This institution should be as comprehensive as Islam itself. This development in the activity of the mosque forces us to think strategically. We must guide the compass of our conflict with the enemy, and call upon our Arab and Islamic nation to join us in liberating the mosques that languish under Zionist occupation. We have taken upon ourselves to purify these mosques from the filth of the occupation in Haifa, Acre, Safed, and Tel Aviv. The occupation has turned these mosques into pubs and dens of vice. We shall restore glory to these mosques – and to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, first and foremost – and they will be liberated, Allah willing."