LETTERS: Israel's great mistake is to assume that killing Hamas's leaders one by one will decimate the group's fighting spirit and ideology.
Its previous actions had failed to break the group. These include the attempted assassination of Khalid Meshaal in Amman in 1997, and the killings of Sheikh Ahmad Yasin and Dr Abdul Aziz Rantisi in Gaza in 2004.
And now we have the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran on July 31.
Israel and the US assume that Hamas's resilience will wane in the face of advanced weaponry. On the contrary, it has been proven that the group cannot be defeated.
Hamas's struggle is based on Islamic law. The group is not tied to individuals but to ideas.
Because of this, its ideology cannot be destroyed even if its leaders are killed.
The seeds of Hamas's struggle have spread throughout Palestine. They have taken root in the minds and souls of the Palestinian youth. In other words, the death of a Hamas leader actually nourishes the movement throughout Palestine.
Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid
President, Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times