How Will Hamas Handle Musa Abu Marzouk after his Latest Comments?

Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk upon arriving at the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters on February 3, 2025. (EPA)
Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk upon arriving at the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters on February 3, 2025. (EPA)
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How Will Hamas Handle Musa Abu Marzouk after his Latest Comments?

Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk upon arriving at the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters on February 3, 2025. (EPA)
Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk upon arriving at the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters on February 3, 2025. (EPA)

Statements by Musa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ political bureau and head of its foreign relations office, have sparked widespread debate after his assessment of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and comments about the Palestinian movement’s weapons.

In an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, Abu Marzouk said he would not have supported the Oct. 7 assault on Israel had he known the extent of destruction it would bring to Gaza. He also indicated that Hamas is open to negotiations over the future of its weapons in the enclave.

A Hamas spokesperson said the comments made by Abu Marzouk “do not represent the movement’s position,” stressing that the movement remains committed to its weapons and considers the Oct. 7 attack a “watershed moment in the history of all occupied peoples.”

In a later official statement, Hamas described Abu Marzouk’s remarks as “inaccurate and taken out of context,” adding that the interview was conducted several days earlier and that the published excerpts “failed to reflect the full substance of his responses, distorting their true meaning.”

Sources within Hamas told Asharq Al-Awsat that the movement has decided to limit its response to the statement and is not considering any measures against Abu Marzouk.

Prior to Abu Marzouk’s interview, the group’s leadership had advised senior officials to avoid engaging with international media outlets, citing concerns that their remarks were often manipulated.

Sources did not explain why Abu Marzouk disregarded this guidance.

Observers say his statements suggest possible internal divisions within Hamas on key issues. Others believe they may be an indirect message from the group to Western audiences.

Hamas sources, however, downplayed any pressure on Abu Marzouk to retract his comments.

Abu Marzouk is widely seen as a proponent of diplomacy and engagement with European countries and even the United States.

He has previously stated that he has met with European officials as part of Hamas’ outreach efforts. Analysts suggest he is not closely aligned with the faction that favors stronger ties with Iran and the so-called “Axis of Resistance”.

This is not the first time Abu Marzouk has drawn controversy with his public remarks or leaked conversations.

In January 2016, an audio recording surfaced in which he sharply criticized Iran, questioning its support for Palestinian factions.



Sudan Families Bury Loved Ones Twice as War Reshapes Khartoum

A Red Crescent team exhumes bodies from a mass grave in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A Red Crescent team exhumes bodies from a mass grave in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Sudan Families Bury Loved Ones Twice as War Reshapes Khartoum

A Red Crescent team exhumes bodies from a mass grave in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A Red Crescent team exhumes bodies from a mass grave in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Under a punishing mid‑morning sun, Souad Abdallah cradles her infant and stares at a freshly opened pit in al‑Baraka square on the eastern fringe of Sudan’s capital.

Moments earlier the hole had served as the hurried grave of her husband – one of hundreds of people buried in playgrounds, traffic islands and vacant lots during Sudan’s two‑year war.

Seven months ago, Abdallah could not risk the sniper fire and checkpoints that ringed Khartoum’s official cemeteries. Today she is handed her husband’s remains in a numbered white body‑bag so he can receive the dignity of a proper burial.

She is not alone. Families gather at the square, pointing out makeshift graves – “my brother lies here... my mother there” – before forensic teams lift 118 bodies and load them onto flat‑bed trucks known locally as dafaar.

The Sudanese war erupted on 15 April 2023 when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army clashed for control of Khartoum, quickly spreading to its suburbs, notably Omdurman. More than 500 civilians died in the first days and thousands more have been killed since, although no official tally exists.

The army recaptured the capital on 20 May 2025, but the harder task, officials say, is re‑burying thousands of bodies scattered in mass graves, streets and public squares.

“For the next 40 days we expect to move about 7,000 bodies from across Khartoum to public cemeteries,” Dr. Hisham Zein al‑Abideen, the city’s chief forensic pathologist, told Asharq Al-Awsat. He said his teams, working with the Sudanese Red Crescent, have already exhumed and re-interred some 3,500 bodies and located more than 40 mass graves.

One newly discovered site at the International University of Africa in southern Khartoum contains about 7,000 RSF fighters spread over a square‑kilometer area, he added.

Abdallah, a mother of three, recalled to Asharq Al-Awsat how a stray bullet pierced her bedroom window and killed her husband. “We buried him at night, without witnesses and without a wake,” she said. “Today I am saying goodbye again this time with honor.”

Nearby, Khadija Zakaria wept as workers unearthed her sister. “She died of natural causes, but we were barred from the cemetery, so we buried her here,” she said. Her niece and brother‑in‑law were laid in other improvised graves and are also awaiting transfer.

Exhumations can be grim. After finishing at al‑Baraka, the team drives to al‑Fayhaa district, where the returning owner of an abandoned house has reported a desiccated corpse in his living room. Neighbors said it is a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighter shot by comrades. In another case, a body is pulled from an irrigation canal and taken straight to a cemetery.

Social media rumors that authorities demand hefty fees for re‑burials are untrue, Dr. Zein al‑Abideen stressed. “Transporting the remains is free. It is completely our responsibility,” he added. The forensic crews rotate in two shifts to cope with the fierce heat.

Asked how they cope with the daily horror, one member smiled wanly over a cup of tea, saying: “We are human. We try to find solutions amid the tragedy. If it were up to us, no family would have to mourn twice.”

Khartoum today is burying bodies – and memories. “We are laying our dead to rest and, with them, part of the pain,” Abdallah said as she left the square, her child asleep on her shoulder. “I buried my husband twice, but we have not forgotten him for a single day. Perhaps now he can finally rest in peace.”