The bizarre and jarring statements have received scant attention. They deserve more. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported in mid-March 2025 that a Hamas Telegram channel exhorted Muslims to kill Jews, and said this was a good deed that would please Allah. It called upon Muslims to carry out a “blessed jihad operation,” and an accompanying graphic bore this caption: “Stabbing the soldiers of the occupation is worship that brings us closer to Allah.”
Hamas was saying that the act of stabbing Israeli soldiers was more than a heroic act of “resistance” to the alleged “occupation.” It was more than a blow against the “occupiers.” It was nothing less than an act of worship: a “Palestinian” Muslim killing an Israeli soldier was akin to that Muslim going to a mosque and participating in one of the obligatory five daily prayers of Islam.
This is sharply different from the understanding of killing in warfare in other religious traditions, which generally regard such killing as a grim necessity for the defense of the nation or in some other worthy cause. The Catholic Herald asserted in 2013 that “the primary duty of any soldier is not to kill, but rather to bring about peace. The primary duty of a police officer is not to kill, but rather to bring about security and safety. Unfortunately, there are times when, in the call of duty, soldiers and police officers must draw their weapons and fire. Hopefully those weapons were fired for just reasons. The distinction we need to make is between a justified killing and a murder…. The Catholic Church teaches that self-defense against an unjust aggressor is morally permitted and the defense of others to protect them from the threat of an aggressor is permitted. But the church also teaches the deliberate killing of the aggressor can be permitted only when no other solution is possible.”
Likewise in Judaism, the emphasis in war is not on killing, but on avoiding killing as much as possible: “War is always the last resort, as in self-defense, when your enemy threatens and poses danger, without any hope for a peaceful negotiation or cooperation.” The bellicose passages of the Hebrew scriptures “should be understood in the context of the times and the surrounding cultures. Some were meant as a compromise and a training method until the Israelites would learn to behave better (as Maimonides argued about sacrifices). Maybe the Torah spoke of total annihilation of enemies because otherwise the nation would not have survived, but even in biblical times King Saul disobeyed the commandment to annihilate Amalek.”
Combatants must do all they can to avoid civilian casualties: “War conditions are never completely controllable, but in any war, since one’s enemies are also created in the image of God, one must seek to kill as few civilians as possible. The IDF are world leaders in making every effort to avoid unnecessary casualties. Deliberate primary targeting of civilians or military action to destroy the society under attack (as terrorists do) is a war crime.”
In chilling contrast to this, a broadcast on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV in November 2011 featured a Hamas jihadi praying: “Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you.”
How could killing possibly be an act of worship? The primary reason is because it is a frequent command in the Qur’an, which tells Muslims to “kill them wherever you find them” (2:191, 4:89, 4:91), and to “kill the idolaters wherever you find them” (9:5), and adds: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks.” (47:4)
The Qur’an also tells Muslims that they are the executors of the wrath of Allah, and that acting as such will make them feel good, it will “remove the anger of their hearts”: “Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, and he will lay them low and give you victory over them, and he will heal the hearts of people who are believers, and he will remove the anger of their hearts.” (Qur’an 9:14-15)
Being violent toward non-Muslims is thus one of the closest things Islam has to a sacrament. In Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, a sacrament is an opportunity for the believer to experience an encounter with God, such as in receiving the bread and wine that is transformed into the body and blood of Christ. In Islam, if one kills an unbeliever, Allah will likewise manifest himself to the believer and heal his heart, removing anger from it. Killing Jews, therefore, is indeed worship of Allah, and yet another reminder that the conflict between Israel and the “Palestinians” will never be solved by means of negotiations.
