The head of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Yahya al-Sanwar, on Thursday  in a statement said that the reporter who published an interview with him on the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, introduced herself as an Italian journalist.

Al-Sanwar’s office explained that the journalist had applied to meet the Hamas leader in Gaza with a formal request for two newspapers (one Italian and the other British). The office also confirmed that it had carried out  investigations to make sure that the journalist was not Israeli and had no previous work with the Israeli press.

“Unfortunately, the journalist did not respect her profession and apparently sold the meeting to Yedioth Ahronoth,” Al-Sanwar said.

It is worth noting that the details of the meeting were published this morning as working for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

“We do not want a new war with Israel and we are not interested in it,” Sanwar told the reporter, saying that a new war does not serve the interest of anyone, and certainly not Hamas’s interest.

Al-Sanwar added that Hamas’s goal was ending the blockade on Gaza, providing protection for it, and defending the right to freedom and independence.

Yedioth Ahronoth published excerpts of the interview, which was conducted by a journalist who visited Gaza for five days, where the most important thing in the interview is that the leader of Hamas and its strong man in the Gaza Strip clearly declares that he does not want a new war in Gaza despite the escalation and ongoing confrontations on Borders of the Gaza Strip.