Hamas: Gaza Will Become Graveyard for "Israeli" Troops

Source: Al-Manar TV, 04-01-2009

As "Israel" launched its ground offensive against Gaza on Saturday night, a Hamas spokesman warned in a televised speech that the coastal strip will become a graveyard for "Israeli" occupation soldiers.
The spokesman, Ismail Radwan, appeared on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV shortly after "Israel" sent its troops into Gaza. Hamas officials are using the Aqsa TV station, in a show of defiance and steadfastness particularly after the station was leveled to the ground in the beginning of the war.

However, Al-Aqsa channel resumed broadcast after a few minutes. After the incursion began, Hamas spokespeople and resistance fighters fired off fiery warnings to the "Israeli" forces. In another message, Hamas warned "Israeli" forces that "Gaza will not be paved with flowers for you, it will be paved with fire and hell."
By sending occupation ground troops into the Gaza Strip, Hamas said, "Israel" was falling into "the trap that our fighters had prepared for its soldiers and tanks."

The movement's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that "the Zionist enemy will see surprises and will regret carrying out such an operation and will be a heavy price. Our fighters are waiting with patience to confront the soldiers face to face."
Hamas has long prepared for a ground invasion, digging tunnels and rigging some areas with explosives.

So far, Hamas said that at least 9 "Israeli" soldiers have been killed and scores others were injured while "Israel" acknowledged that one occupation soldier was killed and 30 others were injured. Hamas also said it had destroyed a Merkava tank and captured two "Israeli" soldiers. The "Israeli" military denied Hamas' report, but the resistance group insists on it

Mashaal: Enemy Was Surprised

Meanwhile, Said Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, visited Damascus on Saturday for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad on the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Jalili also met with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal. According to a statement released by the Iranian official's office, Meshaal told him that any offer for a ceasefire "will involve an immediate end to the "Israeli" aggression and will have to take into account the human rights of the people in Gaza, an end to the blockade and a permanent opening of all the crossings, including the Rafah crossing."

Jalili told Meshaal that those who support "Israel" openly or silently "made wrong calculations not just in terms of morals, but also in terms of diplomacy, as they have linked their fate to the fate of this regime."
The Hamas leader briefed the Iranian official on the recent developments in Gaza and said that "the enemy was surprised by the people's determination and morale."
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