UK member of parliament George Galloway has received a Palestinian passport from a Hamas leader in Gaza.
The passport was given in "deep appreciation" for his support for the Palestinians and their cause. He personally donated £25,000 and a fleet of vehicles. The group visited sites which had been hit during the three-week offensive.
The presentation of the passport to Mr Galloway was the first time Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza and former Palestinian prime minister, had appeared in front of the cameras since the end of the recent Israeli assault on Gaza which ended on 18 January.
Mr Galloway said: "The material destruction is very great, the suffering is very real, but the spirit of the people is strong. If anyone is calculating that by starving and sieging and bombing the Palestinian people that they will one day surrender, I'm sure that they are wrong, the spirit of the Palestinian resistance remains."
Israel, the United States and European Union, consider Hamas a terrorist organisation.
Mr Galloway has challenged western states to prosecute him for his meeting with Hamas leaders.
And why should they even think of prosecuting any one for talking to Hamas, after all, they are the duly elected government of Palestine. Countries who claim to be “Democratic” must now demonstrate that democracy, by respecting whom the Palestinian people elected in an internationally declared free election.
