Hamas abiding by truce
But ready for war:
PALESTINIAN: The Islamist Hamas is observing a truce with
Israel but is also ready for a resumption of hostilities, a spokesman
for the group’s armed wing warned Saturday.
“There is a truce in effect in the field. It is real if Israel stops
its aggression and ends it’s siege. But if there is any Israeli
aggression on the Gaza Strip we will respond strongly,” said a masked
spokesman for Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades who identified himself as Abu
Obeideh.
Speaking at a press conference with three guards, who were all masked
and armed, he said the group was ready to repel any future Israeli
invasion and hinted at a secret weapon.
“We are completely ready to answer any Israeli aggression,” he said.
“Our weapons are few compared to those of the Israeli occupation, but we
have something that will worry the occupation,” he said without giving
details. Israel’s military said this week that one of its tanks
patrolling the Gaza border had been hit by a Russian-made Kornet
anti-tank rocket, the first time such a weapon had been encountered
there.
However, Ahmed al-Jabari, the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades, had a
much more militant message for Israel, saying Hamas would not rest until
Israel was ousted from all Palestinian lands and Israelis faced either
two choices: “death or departing Palestinian lands.”
“Our resistance will continue as long as the Zionists remain,” said a
letter signed by Jabari, published in a Hamas magazine.
Their comments come a day after a senior political leader of the
Palestinian Islamist movement, Mahmud Zahar, also said Hamas was
committed to the truce in effect since the January 2009 end of the
22-day Israeli offensive on the strip aimed at halting rocket fire by
Palestinian militants.
But it also comes amid rising tension along Israel’s border with the
tiny coastal enclave. Overnight Saturday, Israeli warplanes hit four
targets in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least two people and knocking out
power in a large swathe of the strip.
The strikes came after militants fired a mortar and rocket into
Israel on Friday, according to the army, which called the target a
“terror centre.”
A total of 23 mortars and four rockets have been launched at Israel
from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since Sunday, the army said.
One of the rockets struck near a kindergarten in a southern Israeli
kibbutz, wounding a teenage girl.
Gaza City, Sunday, AFP
Pope appeals for Israeli-Palestinian co-existence
VATICAN: Pope Benedict XVI issued an appeal for peaceful coexistence
between Israelis and Palestinians in his traditional Christmas Day
address at the Vatican on Saturday.
“May the light of Christmas shine forth anew in the Land where Jesus
was born, and inspire Israelis and Palestinians to strive for a just and
peaceful coexistence,” he told the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s
Square.
Vatican City, Sunday, AFP |