Hamas condemns Charlie Hebdo massacre, after celebrating it

‘Difference of opinions, thoughts can’t justify murder’ group stated after celebrating perpetrators as martyrs

Hamas on Saturday has condemned the attack caried out by two French jihadists against the Charlie Hebdo publication, the terror group said in statement published in French. Hamas “condemns the attacks against the Charlie Hebdo magazine and insists that the difference of opinions and thoughts cannot justify murder,” the statement read.

However late Friday the Facebook page of “Al-Rasalah,” an official Hamas publication, featured photographs of the three terrorists who were eliminated in Paris, the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, and supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly. The caption reads: “The shahidim [martyrs] who were dispatched by God, the heroes of the raid in Paris.”

It seems the Saturday statement represents a policy reversal in the view of the global outcry over the jihadists attacks on French soil.

The Saturday statement terror group also slammed accusations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently said that France, Israel and the “civilized countries” all faced the same threat.

The statement did not mention the Friday attack at the Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris, in which four hostages were killed by a lone Islamist gunman, or the murder of a policewoman two days prior.