Hamas to Israel: You began killing your children the day you started killing ours

Date: 05 / 01 / 2009  Time:  14:09
Gaza – Ma’an –

Addressing the public for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar spoke out against the Israeli terrorist attacks on Gaza, and encouraged fighters to continue their resistance.

Palestinian homemade projectiles, manufactured by the hands of resistance fighters out of pipe and fertilizer destroy Israeli’s idea that their nation is secure, he said in a recorded message aired on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV.

Speaking about the Israeli terrorist leaders, Al-Zahar said, “They began killing their children when they killed ours. They began bombarding their hospitals when they bombarded ours. They began demolishing their synagogues when they demolished our mosques,” he said.

The problem is not that projectiles are being launched from Gaza, he said, but is rather the Israeli terrorist occupation and siege against Gaza. Al-Zahar demanded that Gaza crossing points be opened, and criticized the European attitude towards Israeli aggression as well as the US siding with Israeli terrorists. He also described the UN stance as “wrong.”

People of the world have taken to the streets to protest the Israeli action; they are not being represented by their governments who are acting with complicity with this latest aggression, he said.

Al-Zahar also confirmed that the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people in Gaza are in a united front, and warned those who are weak from becoming “traitors or betrayers.”

Ahronoth: Israel started to look for a political solution to the war on Gaza

[ 05/01/2009 - 02:05 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that the Israeli government has started to look for a political solution to the war after the first moments of the ground military operation against the Gaza Strip.

The newspaper ruled out the expansion of the ground operation against Gaza for several reasons including that the international pressure, which is expected to reach its peak during this week, will prevent that.

The newspaper added that the goal of the military operation against Gaza was to deal a deadly blow to Hamas to force it to accept Israel's conditions for a ceasefire.

The newspaper also underlined that according to the military plan, the IOF troops was supposed to advance into Gaza from three points so as to split it into four sectors.

The newspaper pointed out that the Israeli military aggression on Gaza may continue due to the American and European support in addition to that of the moderate Arab states.

In another context, the Israeli army's internal front on Monday called on more than one million settlers to hide in shelters and take the utmost precautions for fear of any rocket attacks on the settlements adjacent to Gaza.

According to different Israeli media sources, the IOG decided to continue to close schools at all levels in all settlements located at a distance of 40 kilometers from Gaza borders, but other information refers that the Israeli settlers who live in farther places even in Tel Aviv embarked on preparing shelters.

The Palestinian resistance fighters carried out Monday morning a number of rocket attacks on Israeli settlements inside the 1948 occupied land in retaliation to the ongoing Israeli criminal war against the Gaza people.

For their part, Israeli police sources admitted the fall of five homemade rockets on the settlements of Eshkol and Sha'ar Hanegev which proved the failure of the Israeli military ground operation against Gaza.

Emir of Qatar: IOF aggression Gaza war crime

[ 05/01/2009 - 09:57 AM ]

DOHA, (PIC)--

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, has charged that the Israeli occupation forces' aggression on the Gaza Strip constituted a war crime that necessitated Arab moves to stop it.

Sheikh Hamad in a televised address on Sunday night told the Israeli leaders that the "killing of civilians and innocents will not bring you security but rather catastrophic results".

Any ceasefire in the Gaza Strip should include lifting the siege and opening all crossings, he elaborated.

The previous calm did not prevent Israel from assassinations and incursions and the Gaza Strip turned into a concentration camp, the Emir underlined.

He describe the siege on Gaza as "illegal and inhuman", expressing surprise that legal justifications were put forth to justify an "illegal siege".

The Emir finally renewed his country's call for an emergency Arab summit to adopt a stand against the IOF aggression.

Meanwhile in a similar context, Jordanian premier Nader Al-Dhahabi said in a parliamentary session in Amman on Sunday that his country might re-consider its relations with Israel in the light of the ongoing IOF aggression on Gaza.

He said that the IOF military escalation was threatening security and stability in the region, adding that this country would not remain silent in face of such a serious development.

Parliament members had been asking for rescinding the peace treaty with Israel and expelling the Israeli ambassador from Amman following the IOF massacres in Gaza.

Hamas delegation visits Cairo to discuss means of halting IOF aggression

[ 05/01/2009 - 10:02 AM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- 

A delegation of the Hamas Movement is set to travel to Egypt on Monday for talks with Egyptian officials on means of halting the Israeli occupation forces' aggression on the Gaza Strip that entered its tenth consecutive day.

Official Hamas sources told PIC that the delegation received an invitation from the Egyptian government last Friday.

They noted that the invitation said that it was for a discussion of Gaza events, how to get out of the current situation and means of halting the aggression, and added that the Hamas delegates would listen to what the Egyptians have to say.

The sources said that Hamas has its own vision on means of dealing with the current situation mainly represented in halting aggression, lifting the siege and opening all crossings.

They said that any political initiative could be tabled only after halting the aggression, and expected Cairo to table a number of ideas for discussion and not a comprehensive initiative.