“My administration will prioritize the issue of Palestine as the central issue of the Islamic world; We will make efforts to bring an end to the war against Gaza and stop the killing of the defenseless Palestinian people, with the cooperation of other Islamic and neighboring countries and using all political and diplomatic means”, Pezeshkian told Hamas’ Political Bureau Chief Esmail Haniyeh during a phone conversation on Sunday.

As the next step, the Iranian president-elect said, his administration will follow up on the end of the decades-long occupation of Palestine.

“We believe that the future of Gaza should be decided by the Palestinian people and within a Palestinian-Palestinian agreement. Without taking this reality into consideration, any other initiative will be doomed to failure”, he stressed.

Pezeshkian said that Iran’s support for Palestine is based on Islamic, humanitarian, and moral teachings as well as guidance by the late Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The president-elect also referred to the Saturday massacre of Palestinians in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Mawasi refugee camp in Khan Yunis, saying that committing such crimes indicates that the Zionist regime intends to continue the killing of the defenseless people of Gaza with the aim of crushing their spirit in the resistance against the regime. But the Zionist regime will not achieve its goal, he added.

Haniyeh, on his part, said that the Zionist regime’s claims that the target of its strike on al-Mawasi was a senior Hamas commander is a sheer lie.

Such allegations are only aimed at misleading public opinion, Haniyeh said, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not after an agreement to end the war, rather he is seeking to expand the war.

The Hamas leader also referred to a message that Pezeshkian had sent him in response to Haniyeh’s congratulations on his election win.

Haniyeh told Pezeshkian that the message was indicative of his administration’s future policy to adhere to the Islamic Republic’s stance on the Palestinian issue and the liberation of Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque.