RAMALLAH — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip Tuesday on humanitarian visit. Hamas' Prime Minister Ismail Haniyyeh and senior officials from his government and Hamas movement welcomed Razak and his accompanying delegation, including his wife and Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, in an official ceremony at Rafah. The one-day visit was coordinated with Egypt, and the Malaysia delegation entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing. The Malaysian premier's visit to Gaza breaks the Israeli efforts to isolate Hamas. Razak inspected Al-Shifa Hospital, laid the foundation stone of an industrial college initiated by Malaysia and visited Haniyeh's office that was destroyed during the eight-day Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip in November. Malaysia will be funding the rebuilding of Hamas' cabinet headquarters. At a press conference Haniyeh held with the Malaysian prime minister, he said that the visit “is an Islamic declaration for breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza.” He considered the visit as “a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic response” to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit Tuesday to Al-Buraq Wall (Western Wall) of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. “The (Netanyahu) visit is rejected. Al-Buraq Wall is an Arab and Islamic wall and that Jerusalem is Islamic,” the Hamas premier said. For his part, Razak described his visit to the Gaza Strip as a historic humanitarian one because it is the first time that a Malaysian prime minister has visited Gaza. He also stressed that the Malaysian support for the Palestinian people will continue until they have a Palestinian state with full sovereignty. The Malaysian leader called on the rival Fatah and Hamas movements to reconcile and form a unity government. “We believe in a unity government and pray to Allah that talks be successful and a unified government will become reality in the near future,” Razak said. In October, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah traveled from Egypt to Gaza, a political move to break Israel's blockade on Gaza.
