Hamas Representatives Participate In Mandela Family’s Anniversary Tributes

Senior Hamas officials joined the family of Nelson Mandela on Tuesday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death, shedding light on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

South Africa condemned Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks, which triggered a war resulting in thousands of casualties.

Nelson Mandela, who passed away at 95 in 2013, championed the cause of a Palestinian state as one of his primary international endeavours during his tenure as South Africa’s first black president.

Hamas representatives participated in laying a wreath alongside Palestinians during the Mandela family’s tribute at a monumental statue of the anti-apartheid icon.

Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, a member of the national assembly, played a role in organizing a two-day conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before the wreath-laying ceremony at the Union Buildings.

Basem Naim, a former Hamas health minister in Gaza, and Khaled Qaddoumi, the militant group’s representative in Iran, were among the Palestinians who visited for the conference and anniversary.

“We were waiting to gain first-hand experience of the daily atrocities that are being carried out in Gaza,” Mandla Mandela told national broadcaster SABC.

“It was a real experience for them to be in South Africa and learn from our experience as we had to face one of the most brutal apartheid regimes on the continent, and we were able to defeat it.”

He said his grandfather considered a Palestinian state “the great moral issue of our time” and added: “We are carrying on where he left off.”

Mandla Mandela, affiliated with the ruling African National Congress, supported a recent motion by the party to close the Israeli embassy and suspend diplomatic ties in protest of the war.

South Africa has officially called for the International Criminal Court to investigate what President Cyril Ramaphosa termed Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza.

Israel reported 1,200 casualties when Hamas fighters crossed the border on October 7, while the Hamas government claims nearly 16,000 people have died in Israel’s military assault on Gaza.

Israel, rejecting comparisons between its conflict and apartheid, did not send a senior leader to Nelson Mandela’s funeral in 2013.