The deputy leader of Hamas abroad was interviewed by Palestinian media on Monday and accused Israel, among other things, of trying to create a conflict between his organization and Islamic Jihad.
Asked about the recent campaign in Gaza, in which his organization left Jihad alone in the campaign, he replied: "There are elements that want to sow seeds of civil war between Hamas and Jihad. The entire Israeli plan was to sow discord within the Palestinian people, especially among the resistance organizations. The occupation is working on this, and wants to prevent internal reconciliation. When he said he was harming jihad, his intention was to isolate the other factions from him, that's what he hoped for, but on the ground things are different."
Operatives of Hamas' military-terrorist wing (archive), photo: AP
He tried to explain why his organization did not announce its active participation in Operation Shield and Arrow, saying that "if Hamas had entered [the fighting], the campaign would have turned into a war. A war that will be different. Every year, Israel engages us in a campaign in an attempt to eliminate the capabilities of the resistance." The official added that his organization wants to preserve its strength for the time when a larger and more significant campaign against Israel begins: "Today we are preparing for a strong campaign, and it is impossible to enter every day into a war that will exhaust our social and military strength."
Regarding targeted killings, he said, "This is the nature of the occupation – to rely on assassinations as a preventive policy, and such actions must face a painful and deterrent response." He added that "the arenas of confrontation must be diversified in order to deter Israel."
The Palestinian Reconciliation Initiative
Referring to the internal Palestinian schism, Abu Marzouq said there was a Russian effort to convene a "reconciliation meeting" in which the Palestinian factions would participate. He taunted senior Fatah figures headed by Mahmoud Abbas, saying that their signature on the reconciliation paper laid down by Algeria was done solely for courtesy reasons, and that its sole purpose was to continue receiving financial support from the North African state.
Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, Algerian President Abdelmajid Tabun and Mahmoud Abbas at their meeting in Algeria about a year ago, photo: AFP
This is an initiative that the Algerians have tried to promote over the past year in order to initiate reconciliation between Gaza and Ramallah. Hamas claims that the Palestinian Authority thwarted the initiative by imposing impossible conditions such as the establishment of a unity government even before elections, a condition that Gaza rejects.
Meanwhile, earlier today, the organization's leader, Ismail Haniya, said that Iran is a strong pillar on which the terrorist organizations and the resistance axis rely in their struggle against Israel and American hegemony.
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