MEMBER of Hamas political bureau Osama Hamdan said on Sunday that his movement wants ‘joint Palestinian rule’ if the war comes to a halt in the Gaza Strip.
‘The day after the battle is a Palestinian day. We went to Beijing where we negotiated as Palestinians and agreed on forming a national unity government to manage the Palestinian affairs in Gaza,’ Hamdan told Agence France-Presse during an interview in Istanbul.
Hamdan said the US administration, Israel’s most prominent military supporter, was not doing enough to pressure Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to put an end to his genocidal war on Gaza.
‘The US administration does not exert sufficient or appropriate pressure on the Israeli side. Rather it is trying to justify the Israeli evasion of any commitment.’
Hamdan highlighted that Hamas’ armed wing has a high level of ability to continue fighting the Israeli occupation army despite the casualties and losses sustained over more than 11 months of war in Gaza.
He said proudly: ‘There were martyrs and there were sacrifices … but in return, there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.’
Commenting on Yemen’s latest missile counterattack on Israel, the Hamas official said the attack, which was carried out by the country’s Ansarullah group, showed the limits of Israel’s anti-missile systems.
‘It is a message to the entire region that Israel is not an immune entity,’ he said, stressing that ‘even Israeli capabilities have limits’.
The Government Media Office (GMO) in the Gaza Strip announced on Sunday that the number of journalists killed has risen to 173, since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.
The GMO said in a press release that ‘the number of journalist martyrs increased following the death of colleague journalist Abdullah Shakshak, who worked with several Arab media outlets.’
It condemned the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation army, holding it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.
The GMO called on the international community and relevant international organisations involved in journalism worldwide to deter Israel and pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and to pressure it to stop the genocide and the killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has become tragic, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan emphasised on Saturday, warning of imminent casualties due to food shortages, which are pushing the Strip towards famine.
During a news conference on the developments of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, Hamdan said UN estimates indicate that 70 per cent of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine, adding that Israel’s policy of siege, through the blocking of border crossings, has exacerbated the food crisis.
Hamdan pointed out that the Israeli government ignores notifications from humanitarian organisations, which makes relief work extremely dangerous, emphasising that the Israeli occupation’s practices resemble ‘an advanced form of the Nazi detention and extermination camps, and even worse’.
He also accused the US administration of participating in the ongoing starvation campaign against the Gaza people through its persistence in supporting and covering up Israel’s war crimes and genocide in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Hamdan also answered a question about the mediators’ efforts to broker a ceasefire deal over Gaza, saying there was no progress in this regard.
Hamas is still ready to ‘deal positively’ with any ceasefire proposal that ends the war and secures a complete military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a serious swap deal, he told journalists in Beirut.
Now is the time for the world’s trade union movements to take action to support the Palestinian revolution.
There is to be a major national demonstration in support of Palestine on Saturday October 5th. The TUC has also passed a motion to take action in support of Palestine. In the resolution, Congress resolved: ‘To support the call for a UK-wide workplace Day of Action in support of an immediate ceasefire.’
The TUC must now call a general strike in support of Palestine to begin on Saturday October 5th. There is not a moment to lose. Forward to the State of Palestine!