Former US President Jimmy Carter has advised the Obama administration against keeping the Hamas resistance movement on its list of terror organizations.

Carter, who was in the Gaza Strip to meet rulers of the area, says he will meet with officials in the Obama administration in two days to discuss his latest trip to the Middle East.

Hamas, whose main objective is Palestinian statehood, has long been branded by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist group and is under boycott for its refusal to recognize Israel.

During an interview with Fox News, Carter said Israel must stop treating Palestinians "like animals."

Israeli human rights activists, such as Uri Davis, in late 2001 called Israel the "last colonial power in the world" for openly practicing "torture, detention without trial, confiscation of land for security purposes and collective punishment."