The 72-hour ceasefire Hamas reached with the Zionist regime on Sunday "is one of the ways or tactics to ensure successful negotiations or to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza," said Mashaal in an interview in Doha on Sunday.
The final "goal we insist on is having the demands of Palestinians met and the Gaza Strip exist without a blockade".
"We insist on this goal. In the case of Israeli procrastination or continued aggression, Hamas is ready with other Palestinian factions to resist on ground and politically and... to face all possibilities," he said.
The remarks by Mashaal, who lives in exile in Qatar, come as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Sunday accepted an Egyptian proposal for a 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza from one minute past midnight local time.
The Israeli regime has imposed an all-out land, aerial, and naval blockade on Gaza since June 2007.
The siege has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished enclave, having turned the territory into the world’s largest open-air prison.
In recent months, fuel and electricity shortages in Gaza have worsened as the Egyptian military has blocked supply tunnels leading into the region.
NTJ/MB