Over the past 19 months of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians of Gaza, Western media outlets have done very little in depth reporting on the perspective of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions. These movements are often portrayed as irrational terrorists who want to kill for the sake of killing. When they are interviewed by Western outlets, it is either to quote a sentence or two responding to allegations made by Israel or the U.S. or to relitigate the events of October 7.
The failure by Western media outlets to seek to understand the perspective of Hamas and other Palestinian groups is not just journalistic malpractice, but a fundamental disservice to the public understanding of one of the bloodiest campaigns of annihilation against a people in modern history.
Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill recently conducted a series of interviews, both on and off the record, with several leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Late last week, Scahill sat down with Osama Hamdan, one of the most prominent voices representing Hamas over the past 19 months. Hamdan has held a variety of posts since he joined Hamas in 1992, a few years after the movement’s founding. He has served as Hamas’s representative in both Iran and Lebanon, as well as its chief of international relations. He was one of the top advisers to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated by Israel last summer in Tehran. After October 7, Hamdan became a regular fixture on Arabic language media because of his regular press briefings in Lebanon.
Osama Hamdan was one of two Hamas officials who led direct talks with Donald Trump’s special envoy on hostages Adam Boehler earlier this year. In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Drop Site, Hamdan discusses the current state of the ceasefire talks and Hamas’s proposal for a long term truce. He explains why Hamas will not lay down its weapons or surrender, and addresses the role of Arab governments during the genocide, as well as how Hamas views the Trump administration vs the Biden administration. He also responds to the recent attacks launched against Hamas by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas—last week he called Hamas “sons of dogs,” and demanded the group hand over its weapons and release all Israeli captives. Hamdan also analyzes Israel’s campaign to fully annex the West Bank and he offers Hamas’s current view of what is often referred to as a “two state solution.”