Hamas: Palestinians will never allow Israel to implement its malicious schemes for al-Quds, al-Aqsa

Marking the 35th anniversary of its foundation, a senor official of Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has vowed that Palestinians will continue to stand in the face of the Israeli regime's machinations.

In a televised speech delivered on Monday, head of the movement's political bureau Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinian people will never allow the Israeli regime to implement its malicious schemes that target the holy city of al-Quds in general, and the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in particular.

Palestinians consider the eastern part of al-Quds as the eternal capital of their future state while Israel lays claim to the entire city as its so-called capital.

In line with its claim, the Israeli regime has established some of the most draconian restrictions on the Palestinians' movement around the holy city, including their right to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is Islam's third holiest site. On the other hand, the occupying army regularly provides protection for illegal Israeli settlers who storm the compound to sheer indignation of the Palestinians.

Haniyeh added that the issue of al-Quds will remain a top priority for Hamas and the Palestinian people everywhere. 

The senior Hamas official said the movement has adopted a clear and unwavering strategy with regard to the cause of the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation, and will continue its struggle against the Zionist settler-colonial project.

The Israeli regime came into existence in 1948 after occupying huge swathes of Palestinian territories during a Western-backed war.

It occupied more land, namely the West Bank, which includes East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip where Hamas' is headquartered, in another war in 1967.

Ever since, it has built hundreds of settlements upon the occupied territories and deployed the most aggressive restraints on Palestinian freedoms there.

Tel Aviv withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but has been keeping the coastal territory under an all-out land, aerial, and naval siege since a year after it left the enclave.

"Hamas has long been committed to the unity of the Palestinian people at home and abroad in the face of the Israeli occupation and its schemes," Haniyeh added.

He explained that Hamas has also adopted a strategy of openness towards all Arab and Muslim nations and has established balanced ties based on the notion that the Palestinian cause is central to the whole Arab and Muslim world.

The official, meanwhile, saluted the thousands-strong Palestinian detainees, who have been languishing across Israeli jails, pledging that the movement was committed to securing their freedom through prisoner swap deals with the occupying regime.

• Israeli military forces detained some 6,500 Palestinians, including 811 minors, since January: NGO

Haniyeh also hailed the Arab public for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and rejection of the Israeli occupation during the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

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