Badran: Hamas will 'repel aggression' if war in Gaza continues

(Patria) - Hamas is ready to strike back if US President Donald Trump's peace deal collapses and hostilities with Israel resume in the Gaza Strip, a senior official said on Saturday, according to AFP.

"We hope not to return (to war), but our Palestinian people and resistance forces will undoubtedly confront and use all their capacities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed," Hossam Badran, a member of the political bureau, told AFP.

He also said that negotiations on the second phase of the peace plan would be complex and difficult.

"The second phase of Trump's plan, as is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties."

Badran said Hamas would not participate in the formal signing of the Gaza peace agreement in Egypt.

"As for the official signing, we will not be involved," he said, adding that Hamas "acted mainly through... Qatari and Egyptian mediators" during the ceasefire negotiations in Egypt.

Commenting on the proposal for Hamas members to leave the Gaza Strip under the plan, Badran said it was "absurd."

"Talking about expelling Palestinians, whether they are Hamas members or not, from their land is absurd and meaningless."