'Everyone is replaceable, including Haniyeh'
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00:00Well, from past experiences, not the first time that a Hamas leader has been assassinated.
00:07Everyone is replaceable, including Haniyeh.
00:09He was an important figure, but he wasn't the most important figure in Hamas today.
00:14That person would be Yahya Sanwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, who's underground in a bunker
00:19now for 300 days after perpetrating the atrocities against Israel on October 7th.
00:25The names that were mentioned in the previous report are all relevant and all could replace
00:31Ismail Haniyeh.
00:32They will make a decision of consensus amongst the leadership, and the person who is selected
00:39by them will be accepted by the movement as the new leader.
00:43And you don't see any change of direction from Hamas after that?
00:49There are degrees of how extreme those different people are and how close they are to Iran,
00:56or how much they are willing to perhaps accept the idea of a Palestinian state in the territories
01:01occupied by Israel in 1967, but the differences are not that great.
01:06I have personal experiences with Dr. Khalil Hayya, the number two after Yahya Sanwar.
01:12I found him to be one of the most extreme people in Hamas.
01:16But Khalid Mashal also is unpredictable, and he comes out with very extreme comments.
01:23Moussa Abou-Marzouk, who was reported to be a moderate voice, is also one of the ideologues
01:28of this movement, and he has positions that are presented in different ways to different audiences.
01:35So I don't think it really makes that big a difference of who the leader will be.
01:39They have a consensus-making policy where they arrive at decisions together, and the
01:44person who sits in the head of the number one seat is not that important.
01:49Let's look at the situation there in Israel.
01:51I mean, renewed criticism, isn't there, of Benjamin Netanyahu, some asking if he's really
01:56serious about peace when, assuming Israel did do it, he's just assassinated Hamas's main negotiator.
02:03Well, I don't think anyone in Israel was talking about peace.
02:06We are talking about a ceasefire in Gaza, a perhaps end of the war and return of the
02:10115 Israeli hostages who are still in Gaza, and no one knows how many of them are alive.
02:16We're very far away from talking about peace.
02:19But the talks on a ceasefire were deadlocked before the assassination of Hania, when Netanyahu
02:25sent his head of Mossad to a meeting in Rome this week with the head of the CIA, the head
02:31of Egyptian intelligence, and the Qatari prime minister, where Mr. Netanyahu delivered additional
02:36conditions and red lines on the original Israeli proposal, which Hamas responded to
02:42with a definite no at that point.
02:46It seems very difficult to resume those negotiations.
02:49The Qatari prime minister said, how are we supposed to negotiate when one side kills
02:54the head negotiator of the other side?
02:56And this is a big problem that we're facing right now.
02:59I think it's time for the negotiators, the Egyptians and the Qataris, to put a deal of
03:04their own on the table.
03:06They know what the points of view of both sides are, and they should tell Israel and
03:09Hamas, this is the deal, take it or leave it.
03:13As I mentioned, we are now day 300 since this war began, the longest war that Israel has
03:18ever fought, the most tragic and horrific results of this war, with tens of thousands
03:23of people killed in Gaza and tens of thousands of new orphans and two million homeless people
03:29in Gaza, and all the suffering that the Israelis have faced on two fronts, on the Lebanese
03:33front and the Gaza front.
03:35It's really time for the international community to weigh in much more heavily and help us
03:41end this war.
03:42Have they not already been trying to do that, though?
03:44I mean, as you say, it's been a long time now.
03:46We've had efforts from all sorts of different people, including the US as well.
03:50I mean, is there any real hope, do you think, for a ceasefire?
03:55There's always hope for a ceasefire, but I think that the sides need additional pushing.
04:00I think there needs to be leverage put on Iran to restrain itself in its response on
04:06the violation of its sovereignty.
04:09Hezbollah needs to be reined in by the state of Lebanon and the allies of Lebanon, and
04:14Israel needs to be reined in by its allies, primarily the United States and the United
04:19Kingdom.
04:21International efforts could be made.
04:23There will be an additional session in the Security Council.
04:26If there could ever be agreement between the United States, Russia, and China, there
04:30could be a meaningful resolution calling for ceasefire and using international power to
04:36enforce a ceasefire.
04:37This is what we really need to happen.
04:39Right now, Netanyahu doesn't seem willing to end the war.
04:42He wants his victory picture, which in his mind is the killing of the Hamas leaders in
04:46Gaza.
04:47But they've been trying to do that for 10 months now and have not yet succeeded.
04:51That doesn't mean that they don't, that they won't, but it may take considerably more time
04:56and by that time, most of the hostages will probably be dead.
05:00And just finally, the events of this week, both in Tehran and also in Beirut, do you
05:07have more of a fear now that this is likely to spiral into something else now?
05:13It certainly could.
05:14Once we're on the path of escalation, we don't know if it can be controlled or if it will
05:19get out of control.
05:20The horrific bombing that took place on Saturday on the soccer field in the Druze village of
05:25Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children is the example of something which
05:30wasn't planned.
05:31It wasn't intended, but brought about horrific consequences with the Israeli response and
05:38the assassinations.
05:39And now there'll be similar responses coming from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.
05:43If innocent people are killed, if rockets hit a school or a bus or a shopping mall or
05:49some place where there are a lot of civilian casualties, it will lead to additional escalation.
05:54It could be restrained if the response is restrained, and that's what we hope will happen.
06:01But we're all on high alert now for the chances of more escalation in a much wider war.