'Battling genocide': Hamas asks UK to remove it from 'terrorist list'

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, urged the British government to revoke its designation of the group as a terrorist organisation.

In a detailed witness statement, submitted to a British court this week, Marzouk argued that the offensive was aimed towards military targets and that majority of civilians were targeted by non Hamas members.

Marzouk described Hamas as “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project,” Times of Israel reported, quoting Drop Site News outlet. He also insisted that the group's actions do not pose any threat to the United Kingdom.

The group is represented by a legal team from Riverway Law, pro bono, due to the legal restrictions on financial transactions. The firm argued that since Britain has a duty to prevent crimes against humanity and genocide, Hamas should be dropped from the terrorism list as it “is the only effective military force resisting – and seeking to end and prevent – the ongoing acts of genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by the Zionist State against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

The firm further asserted that if Hamas’s actions can be labelled as terrorism under British law, the actions of the Israel defense forces, the Ukrainian army, and even the British military also meet the definition.

In his statement, Marzouk accused Britain of complicity in what he called Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians, citing the UK’s supply of arms to Israel. He also reaffirmed Hamas’s uncompromising position on the conflict, “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea,” a position that implies the dissolution of Israel.

Taking hostages, which is considered a crime against humanity, remains a key point of discussion as Hamas and other militant groups are still believed to be holding 59 hostages taken during the October 7 attack.

According to Hamas’s health ministry in Gaza, over 50,000 people have been killed or are missing since the conflict began, though the figure remained unverified and did not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 combatants in Gaza and an additional 1,600 Hamas fighters during the October 7 incursion.

Israel maintained that it seeks to minimise civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of deliberately operating within civilian areas such as hospitals, schools, and residential buildings to shield itself from attacks.

Responding to the legal challenge, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel told the Guardian, “Hamas is an evil Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which kidnaps, tortures and murders people, including British nationals.”

The UK designated Hamas as an “Islamist terrorist group” in November 2021. Its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had been banned since 2001, but the designation was expanded to include its political wing.