Hamas official abruptly leaves CNN interview after hosts asks if group takes responsibility for Gaza civilian deaths

Hamas official claims Israel trying to expel all Palestinians, says group has no West Bank presence

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CNN host Jim Sciutto's recent interview with Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan ended abruptly after Hamdan took offense at Sciutto’s questioning.

The interview, which took place on Saturday night, began with Sciutto asking Hamdan if the Hamas had any regrets about the October 7 attacks.

“We’re ten months into this war. Gaza Health Ministry officials say that 40,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, have been killed. On October 7, Hamas killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. Does Hamas today regret the October 7 terror attacks?” Sciutto asked Hamdan.

I pressed senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan on whether Hamas accepts any responsibility for the loss of civilian life in Gaza, which residents have told CNN they believe it does. He wouldn’t answer and instead took me on a history lesson of events he didn’t know I witnessed… pic.twitter.com/L3UUzHrVPb
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 17, 2024

Hamdan repeatedly refused to answer Sciutto's questions during the brief interview before abruptly ending the discussion by closing his connection.

“Well, it seems to me you are giving the Israelis the right to kill the Palestinians,” Hamdan dodged, before deliberately misinterpreting the question, mentioning “regret for what Israel has done.”

Hamdan blamed Israel for the Palestinian deaths, saying, “Israel has been killing the Palestinians for the last 76 years.”

He also blamed Israel for the failure of the peace process, for “trying to take over all the Palestinian lands,” and for attempting to drive all the Palestinians out of the land.

Sciutto told Hamdan that he has been covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for 20 years and is well aware of Hamas’ killing of civilians through its terror attacks.

Hamdan then accused Sciutto of taking Israel’s side, claiming the CNN reporter only views the conflict through “Israeli eyes.”

“You didn’t see the Israelis killing thousands of Palestinians in those 20 years,” Hamdan stated.

Sciutto offered a response and once again challenged Hamdan.

“Actually, I was here in 2014, and in 2008,” Sciutto said. “What you’re saying is factually not true. I was here for both of those conflicts. My question is does Hamas accept any responsibility for the deaths of its own people in Gaza?”

Hamdan also claimed falsely that Hamas does not operate in the West Bank, despite the group regularly taking responsibility for terror acts in those locations.

“You don’t want to listen to the facts,” Hamdan tells Sciutto before terminating the conversation as the CNN reporter attempted to ask him to respond to a quote by a Palestinian from Gaza.

On Sunday, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the Gaza War had reached 40,099.

The figures released by the ministry, which cannot be independently verified, include over 17,000 Hamas terrorists that Israel Defense Forces claim to have killed in battle.