A Hamas leader has said that the killing of the Hamas military commander in Gaza is an opportunity for Palestinian unity. According to the statement by Osama Hamdan carried on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood website:
November 15,2012 Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ international relations officer, said that the latest Israeli assassination is an opportunity for all Palestinian factions to close ranks and leave differences behind, ‘today’s aggression was planned for some time by the Zionist enemy’. In an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel, Hamdan called for caution, expecting a wider Israeli assault on blockaded and besieged Gaza, ‘but this will not develop into an all-out ground invasion; not after the harsh lesson the enemy learnt in the last such invasion of Gaza’.Hamdan further pointed that the ‘Zionist enemy’ has succeeded, through various means, to monitor a number of targets during Israeli incursions of Palestinian territories. For his part, Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas leader and member of its political bureau, told reporters at Shifa Hospital, where Jaabari’s body was taken, ‘You will soon witness Qassam’s responses, in action, not in words. Israeli occupation forces shed the blood of our people with impunity. It is time to put an end to this’.”
The Hamas charter states that it is ” is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and an early media report indicated that shortly after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives were present to review Hamas military formations . In 2007, a Hamas journalist acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons and in 2008, an Israeli TV station reported that Muslim Brotherhood “representatives” had traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the open border to meet with Hamas. Hamas is supported financially and politically by the global Muslim Brotherhood and a NEFA Foundation report has documented the Hamas fund-raising activities of the Union of Good, a coalition of Islamic charities linked to the Brotherhood that provides financial support to both the Hamas “social” infrastructure, as well as its terrorist activities. Previous posts have also discussed the worldwide campaign orchestrated by the global Brotherhood against Israeli actions in Gaza during the 2008-2009 conflict with Israel.