Mashaal: Hamas to continue attacks on "Israel" despite "Israeli" Military strikes

Source: alalam.ir, 30-5-2007
LONDON-Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal has warned that the continuing siege of the Palestinians would lead to an explosion that would affect the entire Middle East.
In an interview with The Guardian, Mashaal said that the Palestinians are "steadfast" and "right" and warned of "an explosion that will be in the face of the ‘Israeli' occupation".
Referring to the economic sanctions, he said the siege is collective punishment, and a crime.
Mashaal vowed that attacks on Zionist bases will continue despite overwhelming "Israeli" air raids that have cost scores of lives in the Gaza Strip in the past two weeks.
He asserted it was the right of the Palestinians to resist "Zionist aggression" regardless of whether their actions are effective.
Touching upon the deadly internal clashes between Hamas and Fatah during previous weeks, Mashaal said, "Palestinians have made some mistakes and wrong bets."
"But negative foreign intervention, especially by the US and ‘Israel', is responsible for these internal conflicts."
US financial support and training for Fatah is intended to boost its ability to control security and confront Hamas.
The "Israeli" occupation has stepped up airstrikes on Gaza over the past two weeks in which more than 50 Palestinians have been martyred.
But the strikes have failed to halt rockets attacks against "Israeli" targets.
Some 250 missiles have been launched into southern Occupied Palestine since May 15, according to the Zionist army, killing two people and wounding 20 others.
Last week the Zionist regime`s public security minister Avi Dichter warned that Mashaal and other Hamas leaders could be targeted wherever they were.
Hamas has rejected Western demands that Hamas recognize "Israel", end resistance and accept previous agreements with the "Israeli" occupation.
These terms had been accepted by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader and chairman of the Palestinian Authority, but that had not forced "Israel" to withdraw.
Mashaal said it is the Palestinians who need recognition, not "Israel". He said armed resistance would eventually help the Palestinians overcome the "Israeli" occupation.
"What caused Sharon to leave Gaza, Barak to leave Lebanon in 2000?" he asked.
"And look what`s going on in Iraq where the greatest power in the world is facing confusion because of Iraqi resistance," Mashal said.
"Time is on the side of the Palestinian people. We are right, and our cause is just, despite the appeasement of ‘Israel' by most powerful members of the international community," he concluded.