Mashaal: All forms of resistance is a top priority for Hamas

Head of Hamas’s political bureau Khaled Mashaal said that all forms of resistance would be a top priority for his Movement in the next stage, and pledged to have the Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

Mashaal told Al-Jazeera satellite channel on Wednesday that the first priority for Hamas is the resistance because it is the normal and legitimate behavior for a people under occupation.

“The resistance in Gaza is honorable, although it has become weak in the last years in the West Bank, so we need resistance in all its forms, either popular or military. Our options are open and various,” the Hamas leader said.

The second priority, he said, is to revive the issue of occupied Jerusalem as a national agenda and a headline of the Palestinian conflict with the occupation, and to rally the Muslim nation to shoulder its responsibilities towards the holy city.

Mashaal also pledged to work on extracting the freedom of the Palestinian prisoners in the coming four years, and to activate the issue of the refugees.

As for the national reconciliation, the Hamas official stressed the importance for respecting and executing all parts of the agreements signed in Cairo and Doha.

He also said that the reconciliation should be based on the national constants, including the resistance of the occupation and the liberation of Jerusalem, and on the political partnership.

Mashaal also reiterated his Movement’s rejection of the proposal made recently by the Arab League about swapping lands and warned of its negative impact on the Palestinian cause.

“We are against this move, against the persistent concession policies and against waiving an inch of the Palestinian land,” he stated.