GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – A high-ranking Hamas official has reiterated the resistance movement’s firm position on the necessity of holding comprehensive elections in order to rebuild the Palestinian political system.
"Hamas welcomes the holding of elections for the legislative council, the presidency and the National Council and will be working for their success,” said Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, in a press conference.
"The national vision for the Palestinian reconciliation is an important springboard for us to reunite the Palestinian people and achieve the national unity based on partnership,” he further said.
The senior Hamas official’s remarks came two days after President Authority Mahmoud Abbas delegated the head of the Central Elections Commission Hanna Naser to hold meetings with Palestinian factions to prepare for parliamentary elections.
However, the factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, demand the holding of comprehensive general elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, and the National Council.
Last month, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas political bureau, "unconditionally and fully” endorsed a recently-proposed initiative by major Palestinian factions to heal the existing inter-Palestinian division and achieve national unity.
He also pledged that Hamas would make every effort and remove all obstacles for the success of the initiative.
Earlier in September, Haniyeh warned that the Zionist regime was seeking rifts among Palestinians and Palestinian resistance groups to distract them from their main priorities.
Palestinians have held weekly rallies along the Gaza fence to protest the siege on the enclave and demand the right for the refugees who were forced to leave during the 1948 creation of Israel to return to their homes.
Some 310 Palestinians have been killed by Zionist troops ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in Gaza on March 30, 2018. Over 16,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.
Gaza has been under the Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards.
The Zionist regime has also launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.