Palestinians Will Never Allow the Malicious ‘Israeli’ Schemes for Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa - Hamas

By Staff, Agencies

Marking the 35th anniversary of its foundation, a senior official of Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, vowed that the 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 Haniya 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 the Tel Aviv regime lays claim to the entire city as its so-called capital.

In line with its claim, the Zionist 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 Zionist settlers who storm the compound to sheer indignation of the Palestinians.

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

He further noted that 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 scheme.

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 illegal settlements on 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," Haniya added.

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.

Haniya 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.