(Reuters) -A Hamas senior official invited U.S. billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday to visit the Palestinian Gaza strip to see the extent of destruction caused by the Israeli bombardment.
“We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility,” Hamas’ senior official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference in Beirut.
On Monday, Elon Musk, the social media mogul assailed for his endorsement of an anti-Jewish post, toured the site of the Hamas assault on Israel and declared his commitment to do whatever was necessary to stop the spread of hatred.
Musk owns the X social media platform.
Hamdan’s comments comes one day after a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas was extended for an additional 48 hours.
“Within 50 days, Israel dropped more than 40,000 tonnes of explosives on the homes of defenseless Gazans,” he said, “I call on US President Biden to review the US relationship with Israel and to stop supplying them with weapons.”
Speaking on the destruction of Gaza incurred by Israel since the conflict began on Oct. 7, Hamdan called on the international community to quickly send specialized civil defense teams to help retrieve bodies still trapped under the rubble. According to the Palestinian foreign ministry, thousands are still trapped.
The truce agreed last week was the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
In response to that attack, Israel has bombarded the enclave and mounted a ground offensive in the north. At least 16,000 Palestinians have been killed, Palestinian health officials say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
(Reporting By Moaz Abd-Alaziz and Adam Makary in Cairo; Writing by Adam Makary; Editing by Christina Fincher and Alistair Bell)
