Hamas denies forming militant group to harm Arab countries

Hamas yesterday denied what it described as “Israeli allegations” that the movement’s leaders abroad were forming armed cells and planning attacks against their host countries.

The group’s spokesman Husam Badran said in a press statement: “The occupation practices incitement every now and then to influence Hamas’s relations with various countries and parties which support the Palestinian cause.”

“The occupation holds some Hamas leaders abroad responsibility for acts of resistance in the West Bank, this is an attempt to cover up its inability to prevent resistance fighters from performing their duty in defending their people,” he said.

Badran, who lives in Qatar, stressed that the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, “does not need permission from any party to exercise its role in facing the occupation’s soldiers and settlers.”