Fathi Hamad
Fathi HamadReuters

Senior Hamas politburo official Fathi Hamad has called for an increase in the terror wave sweeping Israel, and said Arab citizens of Israel are using their status to betray the state and facilitate the attacks.

Hamad, who previously served as Interior Minister in the Hamas terrorist government in Gaza, made the statements in an interview to the Hamas paper Palestine.

In it, he said the Palestinian problem has been abandoned and the intifada terror wave has come to remind Arabs and Muslims of their obligations towards "occupied Palestine."

"The intifada continues, and this is a popular intifada of residents of Jerusalem and the West Bank that enjoys support and aid from the Palestinians inside the occupation, in the diaspora and the Gaza Belt," said Hamad.

The term "Palestinians inside the occupation" is regularly employed to refer to Arab citizens of Israel. A number of attacks have in fact been conducted by Arab citizens, such as the lethal shooting and stabbing attack in Be'er Sheva's central station last Sunday.

According to the senior Hamas figure the intifada has two goals, both to harm Israel and to harm the security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel as well as chances for peace talks.

Such negotiations "haven't brought any good results for 20 years and during that time the number of settlements in the (West) Bank have grown," said Hamad.