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Hamas Activists Accuse Meshaal Of Preferring Life in Exile

Rumors about Hamas Chief of Political Bureau Khaled Meshaal leaving Qatar for Beirut have sparked criticism within the movement toward those exiled leaders who refuse to return to Gaza.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal looks at his watch before his interview with Reuters in Doha November 29, 2012. Meshaal said the de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state won by his rival Mahmoud Abbas should be seen alongside Gaza's latest conflict with Israel as a single, bold strategy that could empower all Palestinians. Meshaal said the short war which claimed 162 Palestinian lives and five Israelis was concluded on terms set by the Palestinian Islamist movement and ended its isolation, creating

The rumors have been circulating inside and outside Gaza for a long time. Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, is supposedly in hot water in his new abode in Qatar and is looking for another place to live. Al-Monitor correspondent Adnan Abu Amer talked with the spokesman of the movement’s political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, who denied the rumor and claimed that this is only propaganda aimed to harm Hamas. 

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas member who has lived in Cairo ever since Hamas officials abandoned Damascus, also wrote on his Facebook page that Meshaal continues to live in Qatar. Marzouk added that no limitations are placed on Meshaal, hinting at stubborn rumors that Meshaal has been under house arrest ever since Qatar’s change of government. It is interesting that Marzouk and al-Rishq were forced to deny rumors in the name of the head of the political bureau, when Meshaal actually lives very close to Al Jazeera’s network studios. Meanwhile, Meshaal's face was not seen and his voice was not heard [on the screen] for months.

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