Hamas conducts meeting with European officials

Secretary of Gaza’s Foreign Ministry, Ghazi Hamad, has met with a number of European officials, calling for the removal of Hamas from the international terrorism list to help pave way for dealing with the Palestinian movement formally. Regarding the meeting, Hamad said: “We conducted a large number of meetings with many European officials. We met with representatives of nine European countries, including European ambassadors, diplomats and parliamentarians, in addition to officials in political parties." The Hamas member said that meetings were held in Europe, Cairo and Gaza Strip - however, Hamad refused to announce the countries involved in the meeting. Ghazi Hamad stressed the need to take practical steps to remove his movement from the list of  international terrorism, in order to recognise the group within the coming period. He added that the European officials were convinced of the need to change their approach in dealing with the Islamic movement and to take serious steps to resolve the Palestinian issue with Israel.