Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar recently threatened that the terrorist group will shut down the U.S. embassy in Israel once it “liberates Palestine”.
In an interview on Al-Jazeera on December 17, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the Hamas leader also made clear that the group "would not relinquish a single gun, not even a single bullet."
“Annihilation will be the fate not only of the Jews, but also of their helpers and of the people who trusted them, cooperated with them and who betrayed their cause and their religion for personal interests,” said Zahar.
He stressed that Hamas would not agree to relinquish its weapons as part of a reconciliation agreement with Fatah. Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has stressed that the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas must lead to a single authority with one law and one army, ruling out the presence of armed militias in Gaza.
Zahar said the weapons are needed to stop “settlement expansion” in Judea and Samaria and claimed that the PA’s security cooperation with Israel led to Hamas relinquishing its weapons in Judea and Samaria and resulted in the “settlements” expanding by 60%. Hamas would not make the same mistake in Gaza, he stressed.
Finally, Zahar dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, saying, “We say that one of these days we will liberate Palestine in its entirety, and we will shut down your embassy, and deport all the people of your kind. You will be disgraced. You will suffer from the future geopolitical circumstances. The Islamic expansion will go beyond what you expect for the benefit of all mankind, all over the planet.
Zahar recently vowed that Hamas would continue the path of resistance "in order to liberate every inch of Palestine from the filth of the occupation."
