GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal made his first visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday, telling crowds he hoped his next visit would be to Jerusalem, Ramallah and a liberated Palestine.
After passing through the Egyptian border crossing, Mashaal knelt on the ground to offer a prayer of thanks and was then greeted by dozens of officials from an array of competing factions lined up to meet him in warm December sun.
Mashaal praised the people of Gaza and the political factions in his first ever speech on Palestinian soil. "We politicians are in debt to the people of Gaza," he said.
The leader was briefly tearful as he was welcomed by Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Mashaal said his visit to Gaza was his "third birth" referring to an assassination attempt by Israeli Mossad agents in 1997 as his previous "re-birth."
Haniyeh welcomed Mashaal's arrival as a historic moment in Palestinian history. more
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