Clamoring for revenge, thousands of Hamas supporters Saturday buried two militants killed in an Israeli raid, and a senior Palestinian official urged the United States to intervene to prevent the unraveling of a six-week-old truce. The militants and an Israeli soldier were killed Friday when troops raided a bomb lab in a West Bank refugee camp, sparking a gunbattle. A Palestinian stone-thrower also was killed by troops.
"Yeah! You Merkins gotta make 'em stop it!" | At their funerals in the West Bank city of Nablus, masked gunmen fired in the air, and mourners waving Hamas flags chanted slogans demanding retribution. The Web site of Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, called on militant cells to exact "a quick response to this crime to teach the enemy a deterrent lesson." Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said the statement "doesn't need any explanation. It means they will retaliate."
"We gotta kill somebody quick!" | The group's leaders, however, stopped short of saying the incident would wreck a cease-fire declared June 29 by Hamas and other militant groups.
"Killing people wouldn't violate any ceasefire agreement. Ever'body knows that." | Palestinian Cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Saturday that Hamas "promised it will not respond to the Israeli attacks." He warned, however, that more such raids could endanger the truce. Israel continues to send forces into West Bank towns and refugee camps to arrest Palestinian terror suspects. |