Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan has told Al Jazeera that the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by Western countries is an important step, which he hopes will be followed by concrete measures to establish statehood on the ground and pressure Israel to halt its operations in Gaza.

Hamdan accused Netanyahu of seeking to prolong Israel’s war on Gaza and called for international action to stop him.

He added that neither Israel nor the US is showing signs of supporting a diplomatic solution, while expressing appreciation to Arab states that back the Palestinian cause.