According to Hamas leadership, they will remain in power in the Gaza Strip and will not allow a puppet government put in place by the Israeli government.
Israel has stated that it will destroy Hamas in retribution for the group's October 7 attack, which Israeli officials claim killed at least 1,400 people.
"To those who think that Hamas will disappear, Hamas will remain entrenched in the conscience of our people, and no force on Earth can annihilate or marginalise it," Osama Hamdan told reporters at a news conference.
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A senior Hamas official claims that Israel's partner, the United States, plans to replace its control in Gaza, comparing such a move to Nazi Germany's puppet state in France during World War II.
"Our people will not allow the United States to impose its plans to create an administration that suits it and that suits the occupation (Israel), and our people will not accept a new Vichy government," he went on to say.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, the Israeli army has blasted Gaza and brought in ground forces in a military assault that has killed over 10,000 people.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated before Congress that the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, should "at some point" take control of the Gaza Strip.
Blinken speculated that international third parties could play a role in the interim period.
And Abbas, whose Fatah party competes with Hamas, stated on Sunday that "the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine."Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007.
"We will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip" -- the areas the PA proposes for a Palestinian state -- Abbas said after Blinken visited Ramallah.
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