Hamas PR Chief: Violence is Still 'Plan A'

Just Journalism reports:

Osama Hamdan, the head of Hamas’ international relations department, used a television interview to clarify the Islamist organisation’s intention to use violence against Israel, following its recent reconciliation with Fatah. According to Memri’s translation of his appearance on 4 May, Hamdan argued that the new unity deal meant that ‘all the Palestinian forces’ would now ‘operate within the single framework of confronting the Zionist entity’:

‘[I]t will be an armed confrontation, as well as all other forms of struggle, including civil Intifada against the occupation, against the wall, and against the Judaization of Jerusalem. There is no doubt, however, that the armed confrontation will continue to be the main effort and the backbone of the resistance, until the liberation of Palestine.’

Hamdan also clarified that the ‘liberation of Palestine’ did not mean the end of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank – ‘I think that politically, the two-state solution is over’ – but, rather, the replacement of Israel’s Jewish population with a Palestinian one:

‘When we talk about the liberation of Palestine, we are talking about the notion of Return: the return of the refugees to their homeland, and the return of the Israelis to the countries from which they came.’