The Islamist Hamas organization insists that “the region (e.g. Middle East) will not enjoy calm as long as the enemy (Israel) is on Palestinian land, and Gaza is besieged.” This according to Hamas Deputy Chief Khalil al-Haya in an article by the Wall Street Journal, asserting that Hamas and its Iranian-backed ally the Islamic Jihad have replenished their arsenal of some 10,000 missiles through smuggling and local manufacturing. The report was confirmed to TV7 by both Israeli officials and Hamas sources, affirming that the jointly imposed Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Gaza Strip has not hindered the Gaza-rulers from restocking its supply of rockets and mortar shells to the level it amounted before the 2014 Gaza war.
Hamas has never shied away from its aspiration to annihilate the Jewish State, and openly declares that goal in its Charter, where the introduction states “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” The document further vows to pursue a Jihad holy war against all non-Muslims in general, and Jews in particular. This is why the Western-backed Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and pro-Palestinian organizations have sought to downplay the perceived support Hamas receives from the Palestinian public, in an effort to preserve broad international support for the Palestinian cause. It is important to remember Hamas achieved an overwhelming victory across the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the last legislative elections in January 2006; sweeping 74 of the 132 seats of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Comparatively, Abbas’s Fatah faction sustained a devastating defeat by garnering just 45 seats.
Hamas’ steadfast refusal of international demands to nullify its declared ambition to annihilate the Jewish state lead many countries including the United States, European Union and Israel itself to reject the popular Palestinian vote; and instead maintain de-facto relations with the defeated Fatah party.