Hamas stresses resistance to liberate Palestine

The Damascus-based Islamic Hamas movement said Saturday the Palestinian authority's decision to seek statehood at the United Nations was made unilaterally and resistance is the genuine road to liberate all Palestinian lands occupied by Israel. Hamas said in a statement obtained by Xinhua that the move was "regretfully taken unilaterally away from the national Palestinian consensus," adding that it came in the context of "insistence on the path of negotiations away from the choice of resistance." Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking recognition of an independent state on territories that Israel captured in 1967, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. "Resistance is basically the real way to liberate our lands, regain our rights and establish a Palestinian state with real sovereignty," said the statement. It added the Palestinian people need to liberate their lands " actually," but not "symbolic steps fraught with risks." Hamas urged the Palestinian authority to reconsider the step and embark on in-depth talks to reach a national strategy agreed by all parties "to be able to reach the right of self- determination and restore all our lands and rights."