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Hamas vows to use Gaza to destroy Israel
TerroristsOfficers from Hamas's militia are vowing to turn Gaza into a huge armed camp devoted to digging Israel's grave, with tunnels, rocket attacks and a free flow of weapons and militants from Egypt. "If Israel attacks the West Bank, we will fire rockets from here," thundered Hamas officer Abu Muad, bouncing his young son on his lap during a "victory parade" in the abandoned Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in central Gaza.

Ground commanders, with bushy black beards and pistols strapped to their sides, rode defiantly in a convoy of 50 jeeps and SUVs to cheers of Allah Akbar from a rapt crowd. Many officers remained unmasked, in testimony to their soaring confidence after Israel ended its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip on Monday.

Commanders from Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades armed wing spoke triumphantly of their post-Israeli withdrawal war strategy from the Gaza Strip. They sketched out a vision of tunnels into Israel, regular rocket attacks on the Jewish state; a free flow of weapons and militants from Egypt; and constant smuggling to the West Bank.

They spoke of their determination to turn the strip of Mediterranean coast, home to 1.3 million people, into an armed camp intent on the destruction of the Jewish state with a Palestinian Authority powerless to stop them.

The movement, which Israel estimates counts 1,000 armed terrorists militants across Gaza and the West Bank, has been responsible for the majority of anti-Israeli attacks during the last five years of Middle East violence. In the past month, Hamas's top military commander, Mohammed Deif, has posted dispatches on the Internet, threatening to fight the Palestinian Authority if it tried to disarm his terrorists militants. Hamas political leader Mahmud Zahar said Tuesday that the movement would intensify attacks against Israeli targets.

But observers caution that Hamas will not take any dramatic steps in the short term and believe the movement's main weapon from Gaza are its homemade Qassam rockets. "If there are any Israeli attacks on Gaza, or Israel undertakes dramatic actions against Palestinians in the West Bank ... they may fire their weapons, but I don't think they'll rush into anything," said Ziad Abu Amr, a Palestinian MP who has written books on Gaza's Islamist movements.

Speaking perfect English, an Al-Qassam officer bragged that the group was banking on smuggling more and better quality arms from Egypt now that Israeli troops had handed security on the southern border to Egyptian guards. Abu Muad painted Gaza as a giant weapons laboratory, where militants will perfect their rockets, such as their trademark Qassams. He also warned that Hamas will take up arms against Mahmud Abbas's government if the Palestinian Authority tries to stop them. "If we are forced to, we will do it."

Abu Hamza, a refugee camp commander, said Hamas would infiltrate Israel from Gaza despite the security fence and high-tech surveillance. "We will have tunnels into Israel. We can smuggle into the West Bank by many means. In the name of Satan God, Gaza is the first step and next the West Bank."

Israel's deputy defence minister, Zeev Boim, warned Monday that Israel would treat any future rocket or mortar attack from Gaza as tantamount to an act of aggression of one state against another. "If Israeli towns are subject to rocket attacks we will respond towards the source of fire by artillery fire," the junior minister told public radio.

Since Israel is going to be called a genocidal racist state anyway, why not do the deed to match the accusation?
Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=129543