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Hamas representative in Iran: latest round of fighting is strategic shift for group

Khaled al-Qaddumi claims that while the militant group and the Islamic Republic share common goals, the fighting was not instigated by Tehran.
A handout photo made available by the office of Iran's supreme leader shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei greeting Ismail Haniya (L), Palestinian Hamas premier in the Gaza Strip, during a meeting in Tehran, Feb. 12, 2012.

This is not just another normal round of confrontation between the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel — at least this is what Hamas believes. The group’s representative in Tehran told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview that, this time, his group along with other Palestinian factions “applied a strategic shift in the concept of resistance, from defending Gaza against Israeli attacks to defending all Palestinians living in historical Palestine.”

Khaled al-Qaddumi told Al-Monitor that another strategic change is that “the resistance will not allow Israeli occupation forces to attack civilian targets in al-Quds [Jerusalem].”

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