The recent conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has changed the opinions of certain global players who now wish to hold dialog with the group, senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar said Saturday, according to Ynet. Al-Zahar said nations – he did not give specifics – which had previously regarded his organization as a terrorist group had now undergone a change of heart. The Hamas leader also called for an armed uprising in the West Bank. He said the Palestinian Authority’s security coordination with Israel was a crime and urged its forces to change direction and fight against Israel. “If the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank had a quarter of the tools that the resistance in Gaza holds, Israel would be wiped out in a day,” he said. Al-Zahar repeated the organization’s claim that it had been victorious in the Gaza war, saying the group would “build new tunnels” into Israel to replace those destroyed by the Israeli army. “Victory has many fathers while defeat has only one father named [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” he said.
A senior army intelligence official has admitted that Israel underestimated the tenacity of Gaza terrorists and did not expect the July-August 50-day conflict to last so long — insisting, however, they were soundly beaten. Amid reports that tensions between Hamas and Fatah could hinder the reconstruction of Gaza, al-Zahar said Wednesday he was confident that the Palestinian public wouldn’t hold the group responsible. What happens next in Gaza “is the responsibility of [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas because now he is responsible for the government,” he told the New York Times. “We are not responsible.” Cairo-based senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said that the organization has already distributed $40 million in Gaza, $2,000 to each family whose home was damaged. On Wednesday, reports in the Arab media indicated that Egypt was meeting with both the Israeli and Palestinian sides and was preparing to issue invitations to ceasefire negotiations in Cairo, but tensions between Hamas and Fatah over the payment of salaries to Hamas employees and administration of border crossings were delaying the talks. These reports came a day after Fatah officials reportedly warned that if Hamas did not cede control of the Gaza Strip to the unity government, Abbas’s presidential guard forces would not deploy along the borders and the crossings would remain closed. Egypt has said repeatedly it would not open the Rafah border crossing as long as it was controlled by Hamas. However, riding an unprecedented wave of popularity following its most recent violent conflict with Israel, Hamas’s leaders have sounded confident that it can maintain support from the people, and since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire went into effect, Hamas’s leaders have been working the streets to buoy that support.
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