“Israeli”, Hamas forces clash in Gaza Strip

Source: The News, 24-8-2007
No one can exclude Hamas from political process. The US and "Israel" tried in vain to do that for 20 years but failed: Meshaal
GAZA CITY: "Israeli" and Hamas forces clashed inside the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in which several activists were wounded, Palestinian medical workers said.
A small "Israeli" ground force entered the southern Gaza Strip before dawn where they encountered the Hamas freedom fighters.
"Israel" frequently carries out ground operations in the Gaza Strip, saying it is searching for tunnels and freedom fighters. Hamas seized control of Gaza in June after routing Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In the occupied West Bank, "Israeli" soldiers came under fire during an operation near the city of Nablus. Three of the soldiers were lightly wounded, the army said.
Meanwhile, Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal said efforts to end the bitter feud with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were deadlocked because of "Israeli" and US meddling, and insisted his men would stay in control of Gaza.
And he warned in an interview with AFP that despite renewed efforts to forge peace between "Israel" and the Palestinians, resistance remained the only option for Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
"Mediation efforts are at an impasse because they (Abbas' Fatah faction) have shut all the doors and rejected Palestinian and other Arab mediation, including initiatives by some Fatah officials," Meshaal said in a telephone interview from Syria.
"‘Israeli' and American interference is responsible for blocking the reconciliation," he said.
Meshaal said: "We have not taken Gaza in order to give it back to them... We have defended our legitimacy against ‘warlords' who were preparing a coup with the help of the Americans and the ‘Israelis'."
Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, now effectively sealed off from the outside world by "Israel" which-like the West-regards Hamas as a (so-called) `terrorist` organisation.
Earlier this month Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, traveled to Sanaa seeking Yemeni mediation in the standoff with Fatah but so far all Arab efforts to resolve the divide have come to nothing.
"‘Israeli' threatens the Palestinian Authority president to prevent a dialogue with Hamas... and the US puts pressure on all parties in the region to prevent any meeting between Hamas and Fatah," he said. "Dialogue is the only solution to resolve the internal Palestinian crisis."
But he said that any dialogue should cover rebuilding Palestinian security services and placing them under a national government that would govern in both Gaza and the West Bank, where Abbas has his power base.
"No one can exclude Hamas from the political process. The United States and ‘Israel' tried in vain to do that for 20 years but they did not succeed."
Meshaal also dismissed reports that Al-Qaeda was present in Gaza, saying they were propaganda aimed at giving Hamas "a negative image."
President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would be locked in a close race if elections for Palestinian president were held now, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.
According to the poll, 20.6 per cent of Palestinians would vote for the incumbent Abbas, and 18.8 per cent would vote for former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.