Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal this week called for Palestinians to end the Israeli settlement and occupation by forming a united field command to ensure the success of the intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

In his first official appearance since Sept. 7, the head of Hamas’ political bureau participated in a Nov. 4 Skype interview organized by the Press House in Gaza — a nongovernmental organization — with a couple of Palestinian authors and media, including Al-Monitor. He outlined factors that he said had deluded Israel into thinking the time was right to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews.

Those factors include the Palestinian division, weak choices made by the Palestinian Authority (PA), the region’s preoccupation with heated issues and the US’ withdrawal from the Palestinian issue to focus on other international events. But the intifada took Israel by surprise and revealed its miscalculations.

In the two-hour interview, Meshaal focused mostly on Palestinian national unity. He refused to endorse any action that could weaken or foil the intifada. He said he hopes the intifada’s momentum will achieve what the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation failed to in terms of national field unity.