Hamas will not accept a puppet government in the Gaza Strip and will remain in the territory, said the leader of the Palestinian group in Lebanon, AFP reports.

“To those who think that Hamas will disappear, Hamas will remain entrenched in the conscience of our people, and no force on Earth can annihilate or marginalise it,” Osama Hamdan told a news conference.

The senior Hamas official said the United States planned to replace its rule in Gaza, likening such a move to Nazi Germany’s puppet state in France during World War II.

“Our people will not allow the United States to impose its plans to create an administration that suits it and that suits the occupation (Israel), and our people will not accept a new Vichy government,” he said.