Hamas's political leader Khaled Mashal said Thursday that his group and other Palestinian factions were still committed to a truce agreed upon with Israel, despite Tuesday’s suicide bombing in Netanya perpetrated by the Islamic Jihad. However, in an interview with The Associated Press, he warned that what he termed as continued Israeli violations may renew confrontations and end the four-month-old relative lull in violence. "Israel is provoking the Palestinian factions to force them to break the truce," Mashal said. He said Israel has failed to commit itself to the conditions of the truce, citing more than 6,000 breaches that he said have killed more than 47 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others. "The continued aggressions and provocations by Israel would create a climate whereby there can be no calm," he said. "No one can prevent the Palestinians from retaliating for the Israeli aggression and from defending themselves," Mashal said, speaking by telephone from an Arab country which he declined to disclose. But for now, Mashaal said the Palestinian factions would continue to abide by the truce agreement, reached in Cairo, Egypt, in March. Rice: Syria for hosting Palestinian terrorists Following the Netanya bombing, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out Syria for criticism and called on Damascus to end its support for Islamic Jihad. Syria has long denied involvement in terror attacks on Israel. "It's essential that the Syrian government end its support for terrorist organizations, particularly those who are headquartered and harbored in Damascus," Rice said. Mashal called her comments "unjust" and urged the European countries to adopt a more evenhanded stand toward Arabs. He described his talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Damascus last week as "frank and clear" and said they discussed the general Palestinian situation, relations between Hamas and the mainstream Fatah movement as well as Palestinian legislative elections. He reiterated his group's position not to take part in the Palestinian national government, saying there were more pressing issues to deal with such as "rebuilding the Palestine Liberation Organization on new organizational bases" to follow up on Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.