Hamas denied on Friday having passed on to visiting United States Senator John Kerry a letter for President Barack Obama, whose nation considers the Islamist group to be a terror organization. "Hamas denies having given a letter to John Kerry," spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP in the Gaza Strip. "Well, in that case we'll throw it away."
"However, we are willing to forge ties with anyone who is ready to back the rights of the Palestinian people," Barhum added.
"So don't throw it away. Whoever wrote it. Whatever it says."
A United Nations spokesman earlier said that Kerry was given a letter for Obama believed to be from Hamas during a visit by the senator to the Hamas-ruled and war-ravaged Gaza Strip on Thursday, as part of a regional tour. "A letter addressed to Obama was left at the gate of our offices in Gaza; it is believed to be from Hamas," said Christopher Gunness of UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees.
"But since it wasn't from them, we're chucking it."