The political leader of Hamas resistance movement, Khaled Meshaal, has arrived in the Gaza Strip for his first-ever visit to the Palestinian territory and to take part in Palestinians’ victory rally.

According to Press TV, Meshaal entered Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Friday, describing his first visit to Gaza as a third birth and expressing his wish to become a martyr in the Palestinian territory.

"I consider this moment my third birth, and I pray to God that my fourth birth will be the moment when all of Palestine is liberated," said Meshaal, who is from a village in the West Bank but went into exile with his family after the 1967 war, only to return for a brief visit in 1975.

"Gaza has always been in my heart," he said.

Meshaal said his previous two births were the day he survived an assassination attempt by the Zionist regime in Jordan in 1997, and his actual birth in 1956.

Meshaal was greeted by the democratically-elected Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who described the leader's visit as "a historic event".

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that Meshaal's visit was "a fruit of the victory of the resistance over the occupation."

Meshaal is expected to spend two days in the besieged Palestinian enclave and attend a mass rally in Gaza City on Saturday, organized to celebrate both Hamas' recent victory over Israel and the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.