Muhammad Darwish, head of the Hamas leadership council, has stressed during a meeting with Iran’s top security official that the Palestinian group is committed to “preventing a return to war” in Gaza despite Israel’s daily “ceasefire” violations.

Darwish and other Hamas officials held talks with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in the Qatari capital, Hamas said in a statement shared on Telegram.

Darwish raised “the continued Israeli occupation crimes against the Palestinian people and its reneging on the terms of the ceasefire agreement” during the discussions, Hamas said.

He also condemned Israel’s recent moves to cement control over the occupied West Bank as “a dangerous step that infringes upon the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people”.