Members of the Hamas terrorist group that controls Gaza have threatened Israel with genocide.

According to Jonathan Dahoah Halevi of the Alternative Angle blog, the comments were made last week as Hamas marked the first anniversary of the IDF’s counter-terrorism Operation Pillar of Defense which took place in November of 2012.

According to Halevi, Hamas celebrated its “victory” over Israel, saying that the round of fighting demonstrates the ability of terrorist groups to deter Israel through missile attacks on key large urban areas, particularly Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and through the continuous improvement of military capabilities and the use of tunnels for strategic terrorist attacks, including kidnapping of soldiers to use as bargaining chips.

The victory speeches given by officials in Hamas repeatedly highlighted the group’s commitment to the liberation of all “Palestinian territory”, denying the right of the “Zionists” to settle in the land of Israel and a declaration of the intent to perform genocide against Jews when the balance of power is reversed.

This message was expressed in a speech on November 13, 2013 given by Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas figure who is a Hamas parliamentarian, a member of the political bureau of Hamas and the Association of Palestinian Scholars which is affiliated with Hamas.

“This way [Hamas’s commitment to jihad] says to them:

[You] Zionists, you have no place on the land of Palestine … we shall expel you from our land and we will fight against you on it [on the land], we will kill you or expel you from it when you are submissive … the jihad and the martyrdom in the way of Allah are our road and our track which are meant to fulfill our triumphs and fulfill and protect our [Muslim] nation.”

Abu Ubaidah, a spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, echoed these sentiments, said Halevi. Abu Ubaidah said on the first anniversary of Pillar of Defense that it would be better for the Jews to leave “Palestine” as soon as possible before “the hand of justice” comes to them, implying that they will be physically eliminated by the Arabs.

“The resistance will sooner or later pursue this occupation, and it will pursue it everywhere, and our country will be prohibited to the occupier … the fate of the occupation is disappearance and destruction, and the shortest way for the occupation is to leave our land and flee before the hand of justice and the hand of the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nation reach it,” he declared.

A senior commander in the Al-Qassam Brigades who was not named said the following, “There will not be a real revival of this [Islamic] nation unless it removes this cancer [Israel] from its body and starts a serious operation to achieve the major surgery, otherwise history will not have mercy on those who gave up on or bargained and abandoned the place of the ascent to heaven [the area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque] of the messenger of Allah [the Prophet Muhammad] peace be upon him, which was stolen by the most bitter enemies of Allah and humanity.”

In a direct message to Israel, that same official said, “You are facing a trial whose real judges are: History, the Palestinian people and the Islamic nation and everyone will sentence you to a final and tangible dismissal and you cannot stop this trial, other than flee. You have this possibility today, and it may not be possible in the future.”

This approach, which sees the conflict with Israel as an uncompromising religious war, is consistent with the Hamas charter and the positions expressed by Hamas leaders over the years, notes Halevi.

“Hamas’s diplomatic ‘flexibility’ as reported by the media and different commentators is not expressed neither in Hamas’s ideological line nor in its practical realization of the conceptual basis,” he writes.

Over the past several days, Hamas leaders have repeatedly made similar threatening remarks towards Israel.

According to a report on Thursday, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas member of parliament and senior figure in the terrorist organization, threatened increased Hamas missile range in the next confrontation, saying that if Israel struck Gaza, Hamas would fire missiles at “targets north of Tel Aviv.”

He claimed that Israel “will be surprised by the abilities of the Al-Qassam Brigades.”

On Monday al-Masri similarly claimed that Hamas now has missiles with a 100 kilometer (62 mile) range, putting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in their sights.

Two weeks ago, a spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades vowed Hamas would continue building terror tunnels and press on in the terror war to destroy Israel.