Meshaal rips "Israel" for holocaust ... of children, of innocents

Source: AFP, 12-01-2009

DAMASCUS: Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal on Saturday slammed "Israel's" assault on Gaza as a "holocaust" in which the blood of Palestinian children was being shed to bolster prospects in next month's "Israeli" elections. "The enemy has failed by creating a real holocaust on the soil of Gaza," Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, said in a pre-recorded statement aired on satellite television stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya.

"Palestinian blood has become a means to win elections," Meshaal said, addressing the "Israeli" people whose leaders are to face off in general elections on February 10.
He also argued that the military campaign had been a failure.
"What did you achieve through this war ... other than the killing of children, of innocents?" Meshaal asked the "Israeli" leadership.

"You have lost on the moral and humanitarian fronts ... and you have created a resistance in every house," Meshaal added. "In all modesty ... I can say with full confidence that on the military level the enemy has failed totally, it has not achieved anything.

"Has it stopped the rockets?" he asked of "Israel's" declared aim in launching the offensive.
Meshaal told residents of the embattled Gaza Strip, where "Israel's" offensive has killed more than 850 people including 270 children since it was launched on December 27, that victory was near.
"The resistance is fine ... Be patient and steadfast. Victory is coming," the Hamas leader told the 1.5 million inhabitants of the territory.

Meshaal also reiterated Hamas' rejection of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire and rejected the notion of deploying international forces in the impoverished Gaza Strip.
"We are the victims," he said, adding that the "aggressor, the Zionist enemy ... must apply the resolution and immediately withdraw from Gaza."

Any truce must be preceded by a halt to the "Israeli" offensive, the withdrawal of "Israeli" troops from Gaza, the lifting of a crippling blockade on the territory and the reopening of crossings with the coastal enclave.
"With an open mind we will work with any initiative or any resolution but only based on these demands ... and then we can talk about a truce like we did before," said Meshaal.

In June, Egypt brokered a six-month truce between Hamas and "Israel" that expired before the offensive on Gaza. Hamas leaders were back in Egypt over the weekend to discuss a Cairo truce plan.
"We will not accept a permanent truce because ... as long as there is an occupation there is a resistance," he said.

Meshaal added that Hamas "will consider any international troops imposed on our people as an occupation force."
He also stressed the right to combat "Israeli" occupation of Palestinian land.
Meshaal urged the Arab people to join the Palestinian people in a new uprising against "Israel".
"We are facing the most difficult days of the battle. We need a third intifada in the West Bank and on the Arab street so that the aggression on Gaza stops," he said.

He also backed calls for an urgent Arab summit and asked Arab countries which have relations with "Israel", without naming them, to cut ties.
Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with the Zionist state while Mauritania, which also enjoys full diplomatic ties with "Israel", withdrew its ambassador in protest over the Gaza offensive on January 5.