A Hamas official said his group is holding off from attacking Israel to focus on running the Gaza Strip.
Asked over the weekend if Hamas has been holding its fire against Israel since purging its rival Fatah from Gaza, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar told Germany’s Der Spiegel, “Yes, at the moment we have to deal with two enemies at the same time.”
Zahar said the new Hamas administration would be willing to hold low-level talks with Israel on maintaining Gaza. “Of course we have to speak with the Israelis, de facto, for example over trade,” he said. “We won’t discuss politics because the Israelis have no political agenda with us.”
Zahar made clear that Hamas would not abandon its fight against Israel, whose very existence it considers an “occupation.” “Our people can’t distinguish between resistance and terrorism,” he said. “We’re fighting for the liberation of our land from an occupation.”
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