Gazans denounce Britain's decision to classify Hamas as 'terror' group

The Palestinian group Hamas has began moving to confront Britain's decision to classify it as a 'terror' group, a senior official said on Saturday.

In a press statement, Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group, said that his movement is working to fight the decision by isolating it via the labour offices of the movement's leadership and its national, Arab, Islamic and international relations.

"This controversial decision is a new attack on our people and their rights, especially as it came to bias to the Israeli occupation that seeks all the times to criminalise our struggle," Haniyeh said.

He slammed the decision as "useless", adding that it had "no effect on our movement, struggle and people, and will not deter us from continuing to defend our people and their rights by all legitimate means through comprehensive resistance."

On Friday, Britain's interior minister Priti Patel said she had banned the Palestinian militant group Hamas to bring the UK's stance on Gaza's rulers in line with the United States and the European Union.

The organisation would be banned under the Terrorism Act, and anyone expressing support for Hamas, flying its flag or arranging meetings for the organisation would breach the law, the interior ministry confirmed. Patel is expected to present the change to parliament next week.

Meanwhile, Gaza's residents condemned the British decision, saying in comments to The New Arab that it was not a surprise, especially as Britain is the country that gave Palestinian land to Israel to establish its state on it in 1948 - in reference to the Balfour declaration.

Mohammed Alaa El-Din, a young man from Gaza, told TNA that Hamas and all Palestinian factions are the identities of the Palestinian people who are struggling to fight for their rights, liberation and establishing their independent state.

"Even if not all the Palestinians support Hamas, but all of us will fight against all the illegal decisions against it as it is a basic and influential faction in the Palestinian issue, mainly it is the strongest armed faction that faces the Israeli aggression in Gaza," he said.

Ibrahim Musallam, another resident from Deir al-Balah city in the central coastal enclave, told TNA that none of the Palestinians recognise such unfair decisions.

He said the Palestinians know that both the US and Britain have their mutual interests with Israel, and they will not risk them for the sake of the Palestinians.

Samiha al-Ramli, a woman from Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the coastal enclave,  expressed her fears that the British government would take this decision as a pretext to deport the Palestinians from Britain by claiming that they support Hamas, as several foreign and Arab countries have done, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.