Mashaal: Zionist entity enemy of Turkey
In speech marking one year since Gaza war, Hamas leader says 'new Arab strategy needed to combine diplomacy with resistance'; stresses Shalit won't be released 'until Palestinian prisoners return home'; claims Islamist group won last year's war against Israel
"Gilad Shalit will not be released until the male and female Palestinian prisoners return to their homes," Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal saidin Damascus Friday.
In a speech he delivered to mark the one year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Mashaal blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "thwarting the Shalit deal".
Israel has reportedly agreed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the captive soldier, who was kidnapped into Gaza on June 25, 2006.
Hamas sources have said the Islamist group cannot accept the offer due to Israel's refusal to include a number of so-called "heavy" Palestinian prisoners in the swap deal, along with Jerusalem's demand that some of those freed will be deported to Gaza or abroad.
In his address, Mashaal said his organization has drawn the necessary lessons from the IDF's offensive in Gaza, which was launched after several ears of incessant rocket attacks on Israel's southern region. He said Hamas "won the war due to the solidarity between the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people in Gaza."
Mashaal added that Israel was threatening to attack Gaza, Iran and Lebanon.
"The Palestinians don’t want war, but we will fight until we defeat Israel if it is forced upon us," he said.
"We must agree on a new Arab and Palestinian strategy that will combine diplomacy and resistance…the Zionist entity is the enemy of Iran, Turkey and the Arabs," said Mashaal.
Addressing the underground steel wall Egypt is constructing along its border with Gaza, Mashaal said, "Gaza is under siege, and it is the responsibility of the Arab nation to break this siege. To the Arab leaders I say that Gaza is in need of rebuilding, not a steel wall."
