A senior Hamas leader said Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement would not surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against U.S. and Israeli demands.

¡°Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons and those who carried it out is something we should not accept,¡± Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.

¡°As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in,¡± said Meshal, who previously headed the group.