Abu Marzouk: Israel cannot release its detainees except through negotiation and a comprehensive exchange of prisoners (Al Jazeera)

Member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Musa Abu Marzouk, said that Israel’s claims that Egypt is responsible for preventing the entry of humanitarian and relief aid into the Gaza Strip “are false and frivolous allegations” and come in the context of the occupying state’s campaign against the lawsuit filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice. .

Abu Marzouk added - in exclusive statements to Al Jazeera Net - that this campaign also claimed that workers at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in the attacks of last October 7 (Operation Al-Aqsa Flood), but they are all false allegations spread by the Israeli occupation since the beginning. The aggression against Gaza without any verification or investigation.

Donor countries suspended their funding to UNRWA after Israel accused UN agency employees of involvement in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by Hamas against Israel, but the United Nations later announced that Tel Aviv had not handed over a written file to it regarding these allegations.

UNRWA was founded in 1949 and is subjected to harassment in conjunction with the intensification of the siege and Israeli aggression on Gaza (Reuters)

Allegations and allegations

The member of Hamas's political bureau also referred to the allegations with which Israel justifies the aggression against Gaza by saying that the occupation said in its defense before the Court of Justice that it only fired at "terrorists" after warning the Palestinians through leaflets, and that it specified to the residents the places where they were located.

But Abu Marzouk refuted these allegations by stating that the apparent truth is that the occupation army killed tens of thousands of civilians, a third of whom were women and children, and destroyed entire neighborhoods without warning, with thousands of civilian residents still under their rubble.

He stressed that this represented the basis on which the complaint submitted by South Africa before international justice was based, and that these facts represented a legal basis on which the court relied first in accepting the case, and then in its decision obliging Israel to stop genocidal practices against civilians in Gaza.

On the 11th and 12th of last January, the Court of Justice considered the lawsuit filed by South Africa accusing the Israeli occupation of committing genocide crimes in its ongoing aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip. On the 26th of the same month, the Court issued a decision imposing temporary measures on Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Release of prisoners

The Hamas Political Bureau member stated that Israel cannot release prisoners held by the resistance by war or force, but this will only be done through negotiation and a comprehensive exchange of prisoners, and not as Tel Aviv claims that it has a legitimate right to defend itself and its citizens.

Abu Marzouk adds that Israel's logic criminalizes it because it is an occupying state, and the people under occupation have the right to defend themselves and resist that occupation, and not as Israel claims and promotes, that it is facing "terrorists."

The South African website "Media Review" published - a few days ago - an article by Abu Marzouk entitled "Hamas Challenges" in which he stressed that it is a national liberation movement and not a "terrorist" group. He also criticizes Israel's defense of the genocide charge against it before international justice, and confirms Hamas' readiness to appear. Before any international court to defend its case.

He emphasized in the article that “Hamas has been subjected - for decades - to distortion and criminalization by various Western governments, political leaders, movements and their hired agents with the aim of portraying it as a terrorist movement that does not care about Palestine, its needs and independence, but rather pursues personal fame and self-interest, instead of being a national liberation movement and an elected representative of the people of Gaza.” ".

Abu Marzouk criticized Israel's defense against the lawsuit filed by South Africa before the Court of Justice, describing it as "full of distortion, distortion, and sometimes outright lies."

He explained that Hamas's lawyers pointed out that Israel's various defenses are not valid according to the Genocide Convention, but rather "are simply another Israeli cry that it is the eternal victim."

Source: Al Jazeera + websites