Mahmoud Zahar: Mixed Messages or Misinformation?

Either Mahmoud Zahar's sending mixed messages, or someone's spreading misinformation about whether Hamas possibly joining the fray of an Israeli-Iranian war.…

By March 08, 2012

Mahmoud Zahar

Either Mahmoud Zahar’s sending mixed messages, or someone’s spreading misinformation about whether Hamas possibly joining the fray of an Israeli-Iranian war.

Zahar told the BBC:

But Mahmoud Zahhar, a senior leader of Hamas in Gaza, denied the group would get involved and told the BBC: “We are not part of any political axis.”

“If Israel attacks us we will respond. If they don’t, we will not get involved in any other regional conflict,” he added.

Mr Zahhar questioned Hamas’s ability to offer support from the Palestinian territory to the south of Israel, even if it wanted to.

But AP writes:

Later Wednesday, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency quoted another senior Hamas official in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, as saying that “retaliation with utmost power is the position of Hamas with regard to a Zionist war on Iran.” Zahar could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

AFP and The Guardian have already quoted their own Hamas sources on record opting out of conflict.

(Image via YouTube/Emirabdlkdr)

© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Pesach Benson

Pesach Benson

A Baltimore native, Pesach was with HonestReporting from 2011 to 2020. He edited the Israel Daily News Stream and authored the e-book, Red Lines: HonestReporting’s 8 Categories of Media Bias. Before moving to Israel in 1995, he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times. Pesach has a B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where he was executive editor of the campus newspaper.

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