The Hamas flag. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Thursday that the recent war between the terrorist group and Israel “is not the end” but rather “just a milestone to reaching our objective,” and continued to claim a “victory” over the Jewish state.

“We know that Israel is strong and is aided by the international community. We will not restrict our dreams or make compromises to our demands,” Mashaal said at a news conference in the Qatari capital of Doha, Reuters reported.

“The resistance triumphed in Gaza,” he said. “Every Palestinian in Gaza and every Palestinian in the world are partners in this victory.”

Mashaal’s remarks came shortly after Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, suggested that Hamas should admit defeat in the latest Gaza conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said Wednesday that Hamas suffered the “greatest blow since the organization’s founding.”

Ismail Haniyeh—Mashaal’s top deputy and the former head of Hamas in Gaza—was hospitalized Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. But Arab media outlets reported that Haniyeh’s son Abed a-Salam Haniyeh denied his father’s hospitalization, saying that his father was simply visiting injured Palestinians in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.