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Photo: Reuters
Zahar: We won't disband
Photo: Reuters

Hamas: We won't disarm

Palestinian terror group says all areas in which Israeli soldiers remain will be considered, like Shaaba farms, to be reason to continue armed conflict

Hamas will continue its armed campaign and will not disarm, according to a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar. 

 

“The Hamas movement will not disband its military wing, won’t disarm, and won’t hand in its weapons,” said senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahar. “The area in which Israel will remain will be like the Shaaba farms in south Lebanon,” said another leading figure, Sayid Siyam.

 

Siyam said if Israeli soldiers were not pulled back from Gaza’s border passages, Palestinians would see their presence as a “continuance of the occupation.”

 

“Like in Shaaba, we will continue to work to liberate the areas in which the Israelis remain,” said Siyam, referring to the small patch of land Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 War.

 

Zahar spoke at a training session of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, which saw new members join the group. According to Zahar, the terror group’s weapons were meant to defend Palestinian land and the Palestinian people, and Hamas had no intention of handing their weapons to any organization.

 

In the course of the ceremony to receive new members in Jabaliya, other senior figures in the group said they too would not hand their weapons in after the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza. “We must be able to continue to pressurize Israel, so that it withdraws from further territories,” said one Hamas leader.

 

"Our weapons are holy... even if they kill us all"

 

The head of the Hamas’s operational wing, Ahmad Gandoor, said, “Our weapons are holy, this is a matter of holiness and its inconceivable that we will give up on these weapons, even if they kill us all.

 

The weapons at our disposal are not up for negotiations,” said Gandoor. He also denied that Hamas’s weapons were a factor in the anarchic security situation in Palestinian territories, saying that “our weapons are not brought out at weddings, they are only there for the armed conflict.”

 

Gandoor also said that Hamas would not initiate attacks against Israelis, but would respond to any Israeli “aggression.”

 

“Every Israeli operation will be answered by us. We won’t allow a single Zionist enemy operation to pass with silence,” said Gandoor, who added that his people would not join the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, despite requests to do so by P.A. chairman Abu Mazen.

 

Hundreds of members took part in the training exercise, most of whom were new recruits into Hamas’s military wings. The exercise was designed to be a flexing of muscles by the movement on the eve of the Gaza pullout, and was precursor to expected celebrations following the withdrawal.

 

Hamas plans on holding a number of celebrations and victory ceremonies, and the movement has hired out sewing workshops across Gaza, in order to produce flags, cloths, and victory symbols.

 

Future confrontations

 

It seemed clear from Siyam’s statements that Hamas is planning on increasing confrontations with Israel after the disengagement.

 

The Hamas leader demanded that Israel unconditionally release Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons, and vowed that unless Israel withdraws from further territory, the movement will continue to see a reason for attacking Israel.

 

“In the course of the celebrations we will not forget that a large part of our land continues to be occupied,” said Siyam.

 

His words were echoed by Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Abdullah, who said that his organization would not cease armed attacks following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.12.05, 17:47
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