"Hamas" and its offshoots threatened to opt for military escalation should Israeli forces continue with the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the Israeli government carry on dodging truce making.
More so, Hamas demanded opening Gaza border crossings and building both an airport and a seaport.
Hamas political leader Yahya Sinwar, despite expectations of a truce soon being made, threatened that the Gaza-ruling group could cause sirens to go off in the Gush Dan region in central Israel for six months in a row, and clarified that it is not interested in a military confrontation, but is also not afraid of one.
“What the resistance launched in 51 days in the last war, it can launch in five minutes during any [future] Israel aggression,” he said, referring to the 2014 conflict.
Sinwar stressed that Hamas would not allow for the siege to continue and that Gaza residents must no longer endure difficult living conditions.
He renewed Hamas leaders’ commitment to a political truce, saying that his movement is not looking for a state in Gaza, and that it dejectedly accepts a Palestinian state built on the 1967 border in support of Palestinian national consensus.
Sinwar’s representative Khalil al-Hayya told journalists that Hamas is determined to lift the siege and that it wants a port connecting Gaza directly to the world, like other countries.
He accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of intransigence in his positions on lifting the siege.
Hayya stressed that if Egyptian and United Nations mediation efforts fail, Hamas will continue its resistance until the siege is lifted.
Statements made by Hamas leaders show that the group is suffering from accusations launched by the West Bank ruling party, Fatah, on Hamas harboring separatist ambitions.
Hamas held a series of consultations with various Hamas-affiliated Palestinian factions in order to unify Gaza’s position.
Factions stressed that they will not hesitate to fight the battle to break the siege by all means possible in order to alleviate the suffering of the enclave.
