Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas have recognized Israel's right to exist. The Israeli government has never recognized our right to a sovereign state and self-determination.

The international community has been extracting concessions from the weaker side suffering under the occupation. For decades, this strategy has done absolutely nothing for the Palestinians. Now they are demanding that Hamas go the same route. We will not accept that. Extracting concessions is not the key to achieving peace. Pressure must be exerted on the occupier.

This is not violence, this is legitimate resistance. This is our people's right to resist Israeli occupation.

What Hamas and the Palestinian people are doing is legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation. Our resistance is confined to the territories inside Palestine and only targets the Israeli occupation. We are not blood-mongering killers who kill innocent people around the world.

Regrettably, what we are now seeing is that the new U.S. government with Donald trump is stuck in the same old, partisan thinking patterns in terms of our resistance. That is a mistake.

There are some who support us and others who are on the other side. They bow to pressure from the international community. But there is no reason for any of them to be against our Palestinian concerns. We don't interfere in any of the domestic policies of other countries. We are a national movement and we are concentrating on our conflict and the battle against the Israeli occupation.

Good relations with Egypt are extremely important to us. Egypt is our neighbor and the largest Arab country. The people in all Muslim countries are on our side.