Hamas hails UN vote as a "shared achievement"

           The Hamas movement welcomed the UN General Assembly vote to upgrade the Palestinian status, calling it a "victory." Hamas official Ahmed Yussef told the French news agency that Hamas considers this a shared achievement and a "new victory on the road to the liberation of Palestine." The head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal told Reuters that the UN vote should be seen alongside Gaza's latest conflict with Israel as a single, bold strategy that could empower all Palestinians. He said Israel would give nothing in negotiations and that any Palestinian who wants a Palestinian state, even along the '67 borders, has to know that the road to that is armed struggle and exerting all forms of Arab and Palestinian pressure on Israel.