In an August 16, 2019 speech, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar promised that Hamas will never give up its weapons, its tunnels, or its missiles, of which he said Hamas has many. He promised to the Palestinian refugees from Ashkelon that, on the day of battle, Ashkelon will be destroyed and that hundreds of missiles will be launched into Israel in a single salvo. In a similar speech he gave on August 13, Sinwar praised older generations of Palestinians for "providing" their offspring to Hamas and for never hesitating to sacrifice everything dear to them "on the altar of liberation and return." Sinwar promised that Hamas will amass power in preparation for Palestine's liberation and that it will purify the holy places in Palestine. Mentioning a Hamas operation that took place during 2014's war in Gaza in which Hamas militants emerged from a tunnel in Israel and killed five soldiers, Sinwar said: "We saw the signs of defeat on the faces of the [enemy's] soldiers… [Our militants] stepped with their boots on [their] necks and heads." The audience shouted "Allah Akbar", and Sinwar ceremoniously held up a sword and a Palestinian flag. Both speeches aired on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza).
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