Gaza, Sep 30 (IANS): A senior Hamas official announced Tuesday that his movement still believes in establishing an Islamic state on all the lands of Palestine.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, the Hamas strongman, said in a ceremony to honour police officers killed in the last Israeli offensive on Gaza that "we don't want to establish an Islamic emirate in Gaza; we want an Islamic state in all Palestine", Xinhua reported.

Hamas militants were the major Palestinian militant group that confronted the Israeli army during the large-scale Israeli air and ground offensive that started July 8 and lasted for 50 days on the Gaza Strip.

He said that Hamas defeated Israel during this war, adding that if the Hamas movement moved part of what it had in hand to the West Bank, "we will be able to go for a successful battle that we will win at the end".

Al-Zahar vowed that his movement would be sticking "to the programme of resistance", adding that "during the last war on Gaza, we learned how to liberate all the occupied lands of Palestine".

Speaking about moving responsibility to the unity government formed in accordance to the reconciliation agreement reached with Fatah Party, al-Zahar said "it is true, and we accept that, but we will carry on with our resistance".

Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah agreed in June to form a unity government that will last for six months. However, the unity government was unable to work due to the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

Last week, the two rivals agreed during a meeting held in Cairo to give full role to the unity government to act in the Gaza Strip, control the crossing points and be responsible for the reconstruction process in the coastal enclave.