Mishaal: We will never compromise on our demands

Head of Hamas’s political bureau Khaled Mishaal said that the Palestinians could return to the indirect truce talks with Israel if there was a genuine indication that it would accept the Palestinian demands.

“We will never backtrack on our Palestinian demands, especially with regard to ending the blockade on Gaza,” Mishaal said, reiterating his Movement’s position in an interview with Anadolu news agency on Thursday.

“Our message to the world is that it is time to deal with the root cause of the problem by ending the [Israeli] occupation and settlement construction, and allowing the Palestinian people to live in peace on their own land,” he added.

He said that the resistance would continue to fight in defense of their own people and land, affirming that the Palestinian people have been fighting the occupation for long decades and cannot stop now.

He denied that his Movement violated the last temporary ceasefire first and accused Israel of lying once again to the international community as it had done before by breaching the first truce at the pretext that one of its soldiers was captured.

The Hamas official also criticized Palestinian premier Rami Al-Hamdallah for exaggerating the size of damage that had been inflicted upon Hamas’s infrastructure, affirming that the Movement’s military losses are limited.

He described Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as a child killer and accused his army of perpetrating a “holocaust” in the Gaza Strip.

“What Israel has done in the Gaza Strip over the last 45 days is an obvious holocaust,” Mishaal told Anadolu agency. “They are killing children, destroying residential areas, mosques, hospitals and UNRWA-run schools.”

He said that more than 2000 Palestinians, a quarter of whom were children, had been killed in the recent Israeli attacks.

“Israel is replicating what [Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler did years ago,” Mishaal said.