|
Hamas warns Israel after airstrikes
[Pak Daily Times] The Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, is observing a truce with Israel but is also ready for a resumption of hostilities, a front man for the group's armed wing warned on Saturday."There is a truce in effect in the field. It is real if Israel stops its aggression and ends it's siege. But if there is any Israeli aggression on the Gazoo Strip we will respond strongly," said a masked front man for Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades who identified himself as Abu Obeideh. Speaking at a presser with three guards, who were all masked and armed, he said the group was ready to repel any future Israeli invasion and hinted at a secret weapon. "We are completely ready to answer any Israeli aggression," he said. "Our weapons are few compared to those of the Israeli occupation, but we have something that will worry the occupation," he said without giving details. Israel's military said this week that one of its tanks patrolling the Gazoo border had been hit by a Russian-made Kornet anti-tank rocket, the first time such a weapon had been encountered there. However, The infamous However... Ahmed al Jabari, the head of the Al Qassam Brigades, had a much more bad turban message for Israel, saying Hamas would not rest until Israel was ousted from all Paleostinian lands and Israelis face two choices: "death or departing Paleostinian lands." "Our resistance will continue as long as the Zionists remain," said a letter signed by Jabari, published in a Hamas magazine. Their comments come a day after a senior political leader of the group, Mahmud Zahar, also said Hamas was committed to the truce in effect since the January 2009 end of the 22-day Israeli offensive on the strip aimed at halting rocket fire by Paleostinian bad turbans. But it also comes amid rising tension along Israel's border with the tiny coastal enclave. Overnight Saturday, Israeli warplanes hit four targets in the Gazoo Strip, wounding at least two people and knocking out power in a large swathe of the strip. One of the strikes in central Gazoo targeted a car as it was pulling up near a site used by Hamas' military wing. Two of the occupants were maimed and taken to hospital, medics said. Adham Abu Selmiya, a front man for the Hamas-run medical services said the two men were civilians. However, The infamous However... witnesses said they appeared to be bad turbans. The blast also damaged a nearby power station, knocking out electricity in much of the area. The other three air raids hit smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt without causing any casualties. The strikes came after gunnies fired a mortar and rocket into Israel on Friday, according to the army, which called the target a 'terror centre'. A total of 23 mortars and four rockets have been launched at Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gazoo Strip since Sunday, the army said. One of the rockets struck near a kindergarten in a southern Israeli kibbutz, wounding a teenage girl. On December 18, Israeli warplanes hit central Gazoo, killing five gunnies as they were about to launch a rocket attack, according to the army and witnesses. While most of the rockets fired have been by other groups, Israel still says it holds Hamas, which rules the strip, responsible for maintaining calm there. Posted by: Fred 2010-12-26 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=312552 |