Senior Hamas official Khaled Meshal announced the terrorist regime will not negotiate with “The occupation”, namely, Israel. He made his remarks during a conference in Qatar, adding while Hamas is not seeking war, it does seek liberation from the Israeli occupation and settlements.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded, stating, “We see that Hamas continues to invest all its resources not only in preparations for war against Israel, but also in educating the children of Gaza to annihilate Israel.”

“The day Hamas stops digging tunnels and diverts its resources to civilian infrastructure and stops educating to kill Israelis, it will be a real change – and that did not happen,” the Prime Minister’s Office added in response to the reports of Hamas’ new policy.

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan added “The ‘political platform’ published by Hamas is nothing more than a public relations exercise, whose purpose is to generate international legitimacy for the designated terror group. In reality, Hamas continues to promote terror attacks and wild incitement to murder, while continuing to reject Israel’s right to exist.”

Erdan added: “The international community must avoid the temptation to treat Hamas’ platform as a genuine change in the policies and goals of the terror group, which continues to work on a daily basis to indiscriminately murder Jews and Israelis, while using Gaza’s civilian population as a human shield.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)