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| Middle East |
| Hamas says it can deliver on threat to kill 100 Israelis |
| 2002-08-03 |
| A political leader of Hamas said over the weekend that the group's militants were capable of following through on threats to kill 100 Israelis for every one of its leaders slain. "We killed 76 Israelis in just a few days after the assassination of Yehya Ayash," said Abdel Aziz Rantissi, recalling a wave of suicide attacks after Ayash, a Hamas military leader known as "the engineer", was assassinated by Israel in 1996. According to Israel's foreign ministry, 59 people were killed in the revenge attacks carried out in the name of Ayash. But who's counting...? Hamas already claimed Wednesday's blast at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, which left seven people dead, in reprisal for the assassination of the group's military chief, Salah Shehade, 10 days before when an Israeli F-16 dropped a one-tonne bomb on Gaza City. Rantissi said he did not foresee an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip despite Israel's wish to strike the Hamas leadership which is based there. "Getting into Gaza is no easy journey, the resistance here is very strong and Israel knows that," said Rantissi, explaining what he labeled Israel's "hesitancy" to re-occupy Gaza. "Go ahead. Hit me with your best shot..." Rantissi also said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only end when a Palestinian state is established within Israel's 1948 borders, basically advocating the disappearance of the Jewish state. But he added that, in the meantime, Hamas was willing to consider a truce for up to 10 years if Israel was to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and if Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in 1948 were allowed to return to their lost property inside Israel. The truce could be extended beyond 10 years, he added. "We can't give up our land, we can't give up our homes and villages," he said. "There is no room for Israel among a sea of Arabs and it will soon become clear to all, Israelis included." I actually don't think Hamas really cares about a Paleostinian state. I think they're in it for the Armed Struggle® — the killing, the bombing, the maiming. And I don't think they're going to go out of business until Sheikh Yassin, Shanab, and Zahar are dead — but not Rantissi, because he's a mole for our side... But don't tell anyone, okay? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |