Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal: Lack of solution to Palestinian issue will lead to 'bloodbath'

The failure to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only lead to a "bloodbath", according to the leader of the Islamist militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.

"Israeli stubbornness, combined with the international impotence in solving the Palestinian issue with a just solution, enabling the Palestinian people their self-determination  —  this will lead to chaos in the region, not just in the Palestinian arena, but an open conflict  —  a bloodbath," Meshaal said in an interview with Sky News.

"We warn against keeping the Palestinian issue with no solution and stripping the Palestinian people of hope," he added.

The militant group's leader also blamed "Israeli aggression" for a spate of violent attacks by Palestinians against Israelis in the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and across the occupied West Bank.

He said that "one of the rare occasions when a synagogue was targeted" was caused by "extreme anger" at the situation regarding the Temple Mount complex, otherwise known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Meshaal placed responsibility for the attacks at the feet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "for them [the terrorists] not having hope on the horizon for a just settlement of the Palestinian cause."

"When the public anger reaches its limit, it explodes on its own, and expresses itself in ways that surprises everyone."

In the seven-week Gaza conflict, over 2,100 Palestinians - mostly civilians - lost their lives. All but five of the 68 Israeli fatalities were soldiers.