Slamming Israel’s expansionist policies and the regime’s crimes against the Palestinian nation, Haniyeh said on Saturday the liberation of Palestine is a national duty.

Haniyeh who was speaking in a televised speech, called on all Palestinians to act against the expansionist measures of the Tel-Aviv regime across the occupied territories, particularly in al-Quds.

Haniyeh also urged Palestinians to protect the city’s mosques, especially the al-Aqsa Mosque, against regime’s excavation plans.

Over the past decades, Israel has tried to change demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. The international community considers the settlements illegal.

The Hamas prime minister also described the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as dangerous, saying the enemy is taking advantage of these negotiations and only trying to improve its own image in the world.

Haniyeh added that the Palestinian people will never give up their rights, under no circumstances.

The US-mediated talks began in July, after a three-year hiatus, to end the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the so-called two-state solution.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip and are demanding Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.

RA/SHI