Qassam attacks will continue despite IDF strikes, Mashaal says
Hamas’ exiled leader tells The Guardian Palestinians are ‘steadfast and there are many ways of resisting’; says international community’s ‘interference’ in PA affairs will lead to ‘explosion in the face of the Israeli occupation’
Rocket attacks on Israel will continue despite the army's ongoing offensive against gunmen in the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ exiled politburo chief Khaled Mashaal told The Guardian.
In the interview, published on Wednesday, Mashaal told the British newspaper from his offices in Damascus that the continuing siege of the Palestinians would lead to an explosion that would destabilize the Middle East.
"Under occupation people don't ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," he said.
"The occupiers always have the means to hurt the people they control. The Palestinians have only modest means, so they defend themselves however they can."
Mashaal said it was the Palestinians' right to resist "Zionist aggression" regardless of whether their actions were effective.
Hamas has launched some 250 Qassams toward the western Negev region over the past two weeks, leaving two Israeli citizens dead. The Air Force struck dozens of targets in Gaza in retaliation, in which more than 50 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, were killed.
Mashaal also alluded to the possibility of a renewal of suicide attacks by Hamas, saying, “The Palestinians are steadfast and there are many ways of resisting according to opportunities and conditions."
Turning his attention to the infighting in the Strip, 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."
'Time is on the side of the Palestinian people'
According to Mashaal, “the siege (on the Palestinian Authority) is collective punishment, and a crime. And the crime is even worse after the Mecca agreement because Palestinians had expected the siege would be lifted.
"Now the international community is trying to undermine Hamas. That will lead to an explosion that will be in the face of the Israeli occupation. The damage will affect the stability of the entire region," he told The Guardian.
During the interview the Hamas leader rejected demands by the Quartet (the US, the EU, the UN and Russia) that the Islamist group accept three conditions - recognition of Israel, an end to violence and acceptance of previous peace agreements with Israel, adding that Hamas would only agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
Mashaal told The Guardian he believed the “armed resistance” would eventually succeed.
“What caused Sharon to leave Gaza, Barak to leave Lebanon in 2000? And look what's going on in Iraq where the greatest power in the world is facing confusion because of Iraqi resistance,” he 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."
