The head of Hamas parliamentary bloc Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahhar delivered a speech at the International conference of Parliamentarians for Palestine dubbed “Jerusalem is the Eternal Capital of Palestine” and held in Turkey.

The Turkish President along with 570 parliamentarians from 65 countries attended and some of the participants delivered speeches before the conference.  

In his speech, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahher said that Hamas movement won 2006 legislative elections, but the Quartet declined to recognize the polls unless Hamas recognizes the Israeli occupation.

Al-Zahhar added, “Following the elections, the world started to punish Hamas and the Israeli occupation imposed a tight siege on the Gaza Strip”.

“It furthermore launched three offensives on the Gaza Strip [in 2008, 2012, and 2014] and bombarded the Legislative Council in Gaza”, he added.

The senior Hamas leader clarified that the Israeli occupation has killed 220 Palestinian civilians at the Great Return March, 43 of whom are kids and five are women.

He clarified that despite the march is purely peaceful, Israeli forces used excessive force to disperse the Palestinian protesters.

Commenting on the regional and international support for the Palestinian cause, al-Zahhar highlighted that the supportive stances towards the Palestinian people have become scarce and some Arab nations have plunged into normalization with the Israeli occupation, unfortunately.

“Therefore, we have to hail you, free parliamentarians, for your support for the Palestinian people”, al-Zahhar concluded.