Ever since US President Donald Trump took up office in the White House on Jan. 20, Palestinians have felt the weight of tensed relations in the years ahead, in light of his positions supporting Israel and his expected hostility toward the Palestinians. Trump has expressed his intention to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and apparently believes the settlements in the West Bank are not an obstacle for resuming negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Indeed, Trump began his inauguration speech Jan. 20 by threatening to eliminate radical Islamic terrorism. Although Trump did not mention Palestine, Mousa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said on the same day that Trump’s stance against Palestine does not serve the region’s stability, but rather entices Israeli extremists to exhibit more extremism.

Hamas seems to believe that under Trump’s reign, Israel would more easily pressure the movement, by tightening the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2006, or even carrying out a military aggression against it. To make matters worse, Trump’s inauguration came only a few days before Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman mentioned Jan. 24 the possibility of occupying a quarter of Gaza in the coming war.

Husam Badran, a Hamas spokesman and former commander of its military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the northern West Bank, told Al-Monitor, “Hamas is a resistance movement that believes Israel is its only enemy. We operate within the occupied Palestinian territories. The new US administration should re-examine the situation in our region to see that putting a check on people’s choices and denying them the chance to reach their ambitions cannot last forever; the people in the region have the right to freedom much like the rest of the world.”