Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar told an audience in Sudan on Monday that the people of Gaza would triumph over the Israeli occupation and "raise the banner of Islam" over Jerusalem.

Speaking at the eighth conference of the Iran-funded International Institute for Jerusalem, Zahhar said his party would "not quit until the banner of one God is raised over the occupied Islamic lands and injustice is lifted," a Hamas-linked website said.

"The liberation of Jerusalem is closer than we can imagine. They used everything to besiege us; food, education … but we have broken the siege thanks to the righteous invocations and above all, the blessing of God," he continued.

Resistance would triumph, he continued, saying the Palestinian people would soon be able to re-enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and "turn the Knesset into another Tahrir square."

Zahhar spoke the day after Hamas leader in exile Khalid Mash'al addressed the conference, where he hailed the sweeping political changes in Egypt, which he said had given the Palestinian people their lives back.

"Today we are witnessing Cairo returning to its natural state, after it disappeared from that state for a long time," the Palestinian leader said in a speech broadcast live on Sudanese state television.