AL-ZAHAR: RESISTANCE WILL REACH WEST BANK IN SPITE OF ISRAEL

**Mahmoud al-Zahar (R) with Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed Al-Hendi (L) at a news conference in Gaza City on May 12, 2008.** (MaanImages/Wissam Nassar, File)

Gaza, 2 Jumadil Akhir 1436/22 March 2015 (MINA) – Hamas politburo member Mahmoud al-Zahar on Friday night said that resistance would persevere in the West Bank just as it was in the Gaza Strip, adding that it would “reach the West Bank in spite of Israel and its allies.”

He made his comments during a visit to the al-Shafei mosque in Gaza City, which was bombed during the Israeli offensive on Gaza last summer, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

He also said that his movement had a thousand ways to end the blockade of Gaza and would not accept its continuation.

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He added that Hamas would not forget Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and that the movement would seek to secure their release as they had done in the 2011 prisoner exchange deal.

Around 1,000 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons that year in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006.

On Thursday, Israeli authorities released from prison al-Zahar’s nephew, Ismail al-Zahar, following 12 years of incarceration.

Mahmoud al-Zahar said the relationship between Hamas and a number of Arab countries has been improving and the movement would perform all the better for that.

He added that Hamas would not change strategy as “every victory it achieves is an honor to the Arab and Islamic nation.”

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Al-Zahar was instrumental to the founding of Hamas in 1987, and has held a number of leadership and military positions across the movement since then.

In 2006, he was named foreign minister and tasked with breaking the US-led boycott of the Haniyeh government.

In the years since, Hamas has seen outside funding pour into Gaza, particularly from wealthy Arab Gulf states in the aftermath of deadly conflicts with Israel.

Formerly a member of Hamas’ military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, al-Zahar is considered by some a hard-liner Hamas leader. His son, also a member of al-Qassam brigades, was killed by Israeli forces in January 2008.

The Israeli-administered military blockade, in place since 2007, has led to frequent humanitarian crises for Gazans, and the United Nations and various human rights groups have repeatedly called on Israel to lift it. (T/P010/P3)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)