Statements On Israeli Support for Hamas

Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, Gaza s Israeli military governor in the early 1980s

“The Israeli Government gave me a budget, and the military government gives to the mosques.”

Source: The New York Times, March 1981.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/28/world/under-gaza-s-calm-surface-death-drugs-intrigue.html

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Avner Cohen, a former Israeli government adviser on religious affairs in Gaza from the mid-1970s until 1994

“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation.”

“[Hamas’s creation is an] enormous, stupid mistake”

“I believe that by continuing to turn away our eyes, our lenient approach to Mujama [al-Mujama al-Islami] will in the future harm us. I therefore suggest focusing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, Jan 2009.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847

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Col. David Hacham, a former advisor to seven Israeli Defense Ministers, and former head of the Arab Affairs Department in the Israeli administration of Gaza commenting on Israel’s recognition of al-Mujama al-Islami in 1979

1.
“When I look back at the chain of events, I think we made a mistake. But at the time, nobody thought about the possible results.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, Jan 2009.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847

2.
“From my perspective, the Israeli security establishment’s decision in 1979 to grant Sheikh Yassin’s request to recognize his association as a legal entity was Israel’s ‘original sin.’”

Source: Israel Center for Grand Strategy, March 2025.
https://icgs.org.il/en/publications/21-to-yassin-assassination/?fbclid=IwY2xjawO8icNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFjdG1ydGY4WVhUOVFiaFFOc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHqCZ2YNjEEICI0W0FW5DBMmxdBrn3hyiHPlFcIoCDvmkE5I2DUAGkPVnXun0_aem_EBNLtM0G9c0ncNihsUbsaw

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Leaked comments by Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, former head of Israel s Military Intelligence -dir-ectorate

“Yadlin said Israel would be ‘happy’ if Hamas took over Gaza because the IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state.”

Source: Wikileaks, June 2007 Cable.
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07TELAVIV1733_a.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawO-7ldleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFQeXJhVXFNaDgwQjVBekJlc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHj7XOekkwHbt4qD0o2DQ677rKa7e1Byiu-ly7BABE_jfMAJC__ld2XJRjPCO_aem_RElyie7745yCCoEeqIAYQg

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Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, former Head of Israel’s Southern Command from 1986 to 1989, and former Israeli Minster of Defense and Minister of Transport

“I was very familiar with Gaza from my previous positions. But when I took charge of the Southern Command, I was shocked by the number of mosques that had been recently constructed in Gaza. As it turned out, Israel’s strategists had been supportive of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’s charitable organization.”

Source: The Jerusalem Post, Jan 2018.
https://www.jpost.com/magazine/it-has-been-30-years-since-the-outbreak-of-the-first-intifada-532851

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Avi Primor, former Ambassador of Israel to the EU and Germany

“It was the Israeli government, it was us who created Hamas, in order to create a counterweight to Fatah at the time. And we thought it would be a religious organization that would quarrel with Fatah, we couldn’t foresee what would become of it, but it’s our creation, these are the facts.”

Source: i24News, August 2014, at 1:10:29.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVyOYr_KzQk

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Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, commenting on Qatari cash infusions to Hamas

"I m doing what I can, in coordination with the security establishment, to return quiet to the southern communities, but also to prevent a humanitarian crisis."

"We held serious discussions, I think we re acting in a responsible and wise way. At this time, this is the right step."

Source: France 24, November 2018.
https://www.france24.com/en/20181111-netanyahu-defends-qatari-cash-infusion-gaza-0

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Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister

1.
Journalist John Lyons: “So, are you saying that Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately boosted Hamas to try to prevent a Palestinian state?”

Ehud Barak: “Yeah, sure, he deliberately and systematically, even told, is on record, whoever wants to avoid the threat of a two-state solution, has to support my policy of paying protection money to the Hamas.”

Source: ABC News, March 2024, at 30:38.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHlFLsf7ot0

2.
“[Netanyahu s] strategy is to keep Hamas alive and kicking … even at the price of abandoning the citizens [of the south] … in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah."

Source: CBC News, Oct 2023.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035

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Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister

1.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan: “Do you believe Netanyahu deliberately propped up Hamas in Gaza all these years funneling cash from to Hamas as a way of undermining and dividing the Palestinians and cynically preventing a two-state solution from emerging?”

Ehud Olmert: “Yes, you are repeating what I ve been saying for a long time. Long before the October 7th. From day one, Netanyahu downgraded the Palestinian Authority and almost inevitably upgraded the Hamas. The fact is that Netanyahu, as I say time and again, many many many years before the October 7th, he released more than a thousand Hamas murderers, on top of them Yahya Al Sinwar, who turned out to become, afterwards, the leader of Hamas, and the commander of the troops operation, which was committed on the 7th of October.”

Source: Zeteo, April 2024, at 1:22.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmctJOVE_OI&t=187s

2.
“In the last 15 years, Israel did everything to downgrade the Palestinian Authority and to boost Hamas. Gaza was on the brink of collapse because they had no resources, they had no money, and the PA refused to give Hamas any money. Bibi saved them. Bibi made a deal with Qatar and they started to move millions and millions of dollars to Gaza.”

Source: Politico, November 2023.
https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-border-troops-women-hamas-warnings-war-october-7-benjamin-netanyahu/

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Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Affairs, and former Head of Strategic Planning in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

“One effective way to prevent a two-state solution is to divide between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

Source: The New York Times, Dec 2023.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html

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Galit Distel-Atbaryan, member of the Israeli Knesset, and former Israeli Minister of Information

“Netanyahu wants Hamas on its feet and is ready to pay an almost unimaginable price for it: half the country paralyzed, children and parents traumatized, houses bombed, people killed … and Netanyahu, in a kind of outrageous, almost unimaginable restraint, does not do the easiest thing: getting the IDF to overthrow the organization. The question is, why?”

“If Hamas collapses, Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] may control the strip. If he controls it, there will be voices from the left that will encourage negotiations and a political solution and a Palestinian state, also in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] … This is the real reason why Netanyahu does not eliminate the Hamas leader, everything else is bullshit.”

Source: Galit Distel-Atbaryan Facebook, May 2019.
https://www.facebook.com/galit.distalatbaryan/posts/2009780689149781?hc_location=ufi

English Translation by +972 Magazine:
https://www.972mag.com/netanyahu-middle-east-peace-palestinians/

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Bezalel Smotrich, Finance Minister of Israel

“The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset, it’s a terrorist organization, no one will recognize it, no one will give it status at the ICC [International Criminal Court], no one will let it put forth a resolution at the U.N. Security Council.”

Source: The Knesset Channel, Oct 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB16PMEPuiM

English translation by The Intercept:
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/14/hamas-israel-palestinian-authority/

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Ami Ayalon, former Head of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)

“We did something very very simple. We did everything in order to make sure that Hamas will go on controlling Gaza and Palestinian Authority will control the West Bank, so they will fight each other … So what we did with the permission of our prime minister is to let Qatar to transfer a huge amount of money in cash, probably more than 1.4 Billion dollar, and to make sure that they will be able to send, you know people to work in Israel, and to achieve,´-or-to get, intelligence if they need. By doing it, we increase the power of Hamas.”

Source: ABC News, March 2024, at 29:39.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHlFLsf7ot0

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Majed Al-Ansari, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Qatar, and the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar

“We did not enter into a relationship with Hamas because we wanted to. We were asked by the U.S. We reviewed that request in 2006.”

“If you are going to attack Qatar by saying that Qatar funded Hamas – our partner in this funding was the Israeli government.”

“As a matter of fact, we were asked to increase that aid, and on a number of times, we were asked to continue that aid when we were reconsidering providing aid to Gaza by the Israeli government.”

Source: Haaretz, April 2024.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-27/ty-article/.premium/every-time-were-close-to-a-deal-both-sides-sabotage-it-top-qatari-official-to-haaretz/0000018f-1f94-d1f3-afcf-3ff5ab730000

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Avigdor Lieberman, former Israeli Defense Minister

1.
Avigdor Lieberman: “Suddenly, the state of Israel is distributing weapons to all kinds of clans, like the Amasha clan, which are Salafists, affiliated with ISIS. They receive weapons from the State of Israel. It’s complete Madness. I’m not sure it even went through the Cabinet and the Cabinet approved it. It’s not clear to me who took the decision.”

The interviewer: “So, whose decision is it?”

Avigdor Lieberman: “Netanyahu, just as he once tried to build a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority with Hamas, now he is building up ISIS as a counterweight to Hamas inside the Gaza Strip.”

Source: Keshet 12 (Channel 12), June 2025.
https://www.mako.co.il/news-politics/2025_q1/Article-86854016b6f3791027.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com

English subtitles by Middle East Eye:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DhIlaZmSbDM

2.
“On Wednesday two weeks ago the head of Mossad … and the head of [IDF] Southern Command visit Qatar on an errand from Netanyahu, and they simply beg the Qataris to keep sending money to Hamas after March 30. The Qataris have said they will stop sending money on March 30.”

Source: The Times of Israel, Feb 2020.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mossad-chief-top-general-visited-qatar-begged-it-to-pay-hamas-liberman-says/

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A source in a Likud faction Knesset meeting paraphrasing Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel

“The prime minister also said that, ‘whoever is against a Palestinian state should be for’ transferring the funds to Gaza, because maintaining a separation between the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza helps prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Source: The Jerusalem Post, March 2019.
https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/netanyahu-money-to-hamas-part-of-strategy-to-keep-palestinians-divided-583082

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Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar

“Hamas’ presence in Doha happened with full transparency and coordination, and at the request of the U.S. and Israel.”

Source: Sky News, Dec 2024, at 4:13.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjRuovk_iM0&t=238s

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Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, former Head of the Research Division in the IDF Military Intelligence, and former -dir-ector General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs

“The logic of Israel was that Hamas should be strong enough to rule Gaza, but weak enough to be deterred by Israel.”

Source: The New York Times, Dec 2023.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html

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Yuval Diskin, former Head of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)

"If we look at it over the years, one of the main people contributing to Hamas s strengthening has been Bibi Netanyahu, since his first term as prime minister."

Source: CBC News, Oct 2023.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035

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Udi Levy, former Head of Mossad s Economic Warfare Division

"The Qataris [had] a special envoy that came every month, with a private jet to Rafah with a suitcase, enter to Gaza, gave it to Hamas, say hello and go back, that s it.”

“’A significant sum of this money’ went to ‘support Hamas s military arm.’”

Source: BBC, Feb 2024.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68318856

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Mousa Abu Marzouk, Head of Hamas’ Foreign Relations Office

“Our presence in Doha is based on a U.S. request. When we were in Jordan, we had a disagreement with Jordan, so the U.S. asked Qatar to take our leadership.”

Source: MBC Masr, May 2024, at 1:21.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=399263473033232

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Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen, commander of the Israeli military division responsible for executing the 2005 disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip

1.
“’I prefer Hamas to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas].’ Because Hamas ‘helps me prevent a two-state solution’ and is, covertly ‘an ally, because neither it nor I want a final solution and neither in my terms nor in its is there something that is everlasting.’”

Source: Times of Israel, Aug 2015.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-evacuating-gaza-a-lonely-general-of-faith-struggles-for-israels-salvation/

2.
“We need to tell the truth. Netanyahu’s strategy is to prevent the option of two-states, so he is turning Hamas into his closest partner. Openly Hamas is an enemy. Covertly, it’s an ally.”

Source: Haaretz, Oct 2023.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-11/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-needed-a-strong-hamas/0000018b-1e9f-d47b-a7fb-bfdfd8f30000

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Josep Borrell, former High Representative of the -union- for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice-President of the European Commission

“Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah.”

Source: Reuters, Jan 2024.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eus-borrell-says-israel-financed-creation-gaza-rulers-hamas-2024-01-19/

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Stephen Gowans, author of Israel, A Beachhead in the Middle East: From European Colony to US Power Projection Platform

“Washington has no real objection to political Islamists who, viewing themselves as modern-day Salah al-Dines, want to recover Palestine for Islam. The more political Islam presents the Israelis with a future that denies them a place in Palestine as equal citizens, the stronger the Israeli attachment to the United States as a protector against what is, from their perspective, an intolerable future. If Jews are to leave the political Zionist highway, they must have an exit ramp to a secure future. Political Islam offers no exit ramp.”

“On the other hand, a unitary, democratic, state of Arabs and Jews, with equal rights for all, is one that would be more acceptable to its Arab citizens and its Arab neighbors than the current anti-Arab racist Zionist state, and therefore would no longer require the protection of Washington for survival. As a consequence, Washington would lose its leverage over the state as the guarantor of its existence, and could no longer use the state as a battering ram against the Arabs, a poisoned dagger aimed at the heart of the Arab nation,´-or-a rock against which the waves of Arab nationalism are to be broken.”

Source: Why Washington Rejects a Liberal Democratic Solution to the Problem of Palestine, June 2021.
https://gowans.blog/2021/06/26/why-washington-rejects-a-liberal-democratic-solution-to-the-problem-of-palestine/

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