Dozens of Jewish settlers torched hundreds of Palestinian homes on the night of 22 February 2023 while attacking the Palestinian village of Huwara. A Palestinian man was killed in the rampage.

In an interview with the official website of the Hamas Movement, Al-Aruri emphasized that senior zionist officials have given the settlers the green light to commit this crime against the Palestinians.

“I think the Palestinian village should be wiped out,” the israeli Finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, commented on the rampage.

The senior Hamas official explained that such positions are part of the zionist occupation’s agenda. “It is a message to the international community and those who support the israeli occupation about the criminal mentality of israeli leaders,” he noted.

He called for boycotting the occupation state at all levels.

Hailing the positions of the Arab and Islamic countries that condemned the israeli crime, the senior Hamas official called for more actions to pressure the ZOA into stopping its violations against the Palestinians.

Answering a question about the possibility of escalation in the holy month of Ramadan, Al-Aruri said that there are no plans to escalate the situation in Ramadan. “It only depends on the ZOA violations across Palestine and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The zionist occupation regime tries to provoke the Palestinians in Ramadan, impose temporal and spatial division, and permit settlers to perform rituals, the deputy Hamas chief added. “This may prompt an action on the part of Palestinians.”

Regarding Hamas’s international relations, Al-Aruri said that the Movement had met Russian officials in Moscow very recently and may visit another country in the coming few weeks.

Hamas also has strengthened its ties with many Arab countries, such as Egypt, Algeria, Syria, and others, the senior Hamas official continued, noting that Hamas builds its ties with the countries to support the Palestinian people’s freedom struggle against the zionist occupation.

He pointed out that Hamas welcomes the resumption of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Commenting on the normalization of ties with the zionist occupation regime, Al-Aruri said that forging ties with the occupation state is fully rejected on the part of Palestinians because “it is based on recognizing the israeli occupation."

He called on Arab and Islamic countries to condemn normalization and boycott Israel. (ILKHA)