Hamas Meets Palestinian Islamic Groups in Beirut
BEIRUT, Sept. 06 (YPA) – A leadership delegation from the Hamas movement met on Saturday in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, with a delegation representing Palestinian Islamic groups, including Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Saadi of the Ansar al-Islamic League and Abu Mohammed Al-Masri of the Mujahideen Islamic Movement.
According to a Hamas statement, the two sides discussed the latest political developments concerning the Palestinian cause, developments in the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, conditions in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and the Palestinian elections.
The participants condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, as well as escalating attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which form part of Israeli plans to impose temporal and spatial division as a prelude to its complete Judaization.
The two sides also condemned continued Israeli attacks against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in occupied city of al-Quds, the West Bank refugee camps and the Gaza Strip, saying the attacks seek to end the agency’s role and ultimately eliminate the Palestinian refugee issue.
The participants reaffirmed their commitment to the international agency and called on the international community to strengthen its role and improve its services, describing UNRWA as an international witness to the refugee issue and an agency mandated by the United Nations to provide relief and employment services to Palestinian refugees until their return to their homeland.
They stressed the right of Palestinians in Lebanon to elect their representatives to the Palestinian National Council, rejecting appointments, exclusion, unilateralism and the monopolization of popular representation by certain factions, as well as the exclusion of major national and Islamic forces.
The two sides called for democratic elections based on genuine representation of the Palestinian people and ensuring the participation of all political forces and currents.
They also renewed their commitment to and concern for the security and stability of the Palestinian community in Lebanon, while supporting Lebanon’s security, stability and civil peace and promoting fraternal relations between the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples in a manner that serves their interests and common cause.
The Hamas delegation included Ali Barakeh, head of the movement’s National Relations Department abroad, and Dr. Ahmed Abdul Hadi, Hamas representative in Lebanon.