A senior Hamas official thanked student protesters at American universities for their efforts following the creation of anti-Israel encampments at many college campuses. The official used language that likened the wave of student occupations to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, referred to by Hamas as operation “Al Aqsa Flood.”

The comments were made in Arabic by senior Hamas official Khaled Mashal on May 18 and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

”We thank the great student flood which emerged from the American, European, and Western universities,” Mashal said. “We have an opportunity to defeat Israel, Allah willing. We have an opportunity to dismantle the Zionist enterprise. We have an opportunity to change the world.”