Mashaal: I don't know how many rockets Hamas has

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said he has virtually no involvement in Hamas' military operations in an exclusive interview with Yahoo News, where he also appealed to U.S. President Barack Obama to intervene in the Gaza conflict and compared Israel's leaders to Adolf Hitler.

"I don't know," Mashaal responded, when asked how many rockets Hamas has. "I'm the head of the political bureau. ... I direct the policies and the positions. But not the details when it comes to military issues."

He added that Hamas has become self-reliant in the manufacturing of weapons.

Speaking in English during the interview with Yahoo, Mashall called directly on Obama, saying, "You as the leader of the most powerful state in the world, I ask you to call [on] Israel to stop its aggression on Gaza -- and to lift the siege and open the cross borders and to rebuild Gaza."

Mashaal then named Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, comparing their actions in Operation Protective Edge to the Holocaust. "What's the difference between that and what the Nazis did in the 1930s and 1940s," he asked. "And what Hitler did. This is the real Holocaust."

When Yahoo asked Mashaal whether Hamas military wing commander Mohammed Deif was killed in the Israeli strike on his home that left his wife and child dead, Mashaal replied that Deif is "fine and safe," adding that the attempt on his life was a "stab in the back."