That's because waving weaponry and hollering has worked so well for them...
The Islamist movement announced its intentions on Monday despite pledges by several European countries to stop weapons smuggling in Gaza. "Do whatever you want. Manufacturing the holy weapons is our mission and we know how to acquire weapons," said Hamas' military wing spokesperon Abu Ubeida.
"We will not surrender to the pressure applied on us. Our rocket force was unaffected by the fighting," he said.
Abu Ubeida also defended Hamas' right to bring weapons into Gaza, saying that the group's members are merely resisting an occupying power. "Bringing weapons into Gaza is not smuggling. The natural situation is for weapons to be brought in officially by all Arab and Muslim countries and from other free peoples of the world in order to confront the Israeli occupation." "Even while the world denies it, we believe that it is our right to bring in weapons as we see fit."
But Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said that if Hamas resumed Qassam rocket attacks, Israel will launch a fresh attack against Hamas in Gaza. "If Hamas fires a Qassam at Israel, it will get slapped down again, as it got it now and they know this," Livni said.
Hamas' announcement took place three days after Israel signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States calling for increased intelligence-sharing and political commitments to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas One of the requests in the MoU is a ground penetrating radar or GPR, to detect tunnels, as well as supervision to stop the alleged smuggling of arms from Iran.
On Sunday, European Union heads of state met Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem in a further bid to help stop arms smuggling into Gaza and maintain peace in the region. The top-level delegation included Czech prime minister and EU president Mirek Topolanek, German chancellor Angela Merkel, British prime minister Gordon Brown, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Prior to the meeting with Olmert, France, Germany and the United Kingdom pledged their naval support to prevent the delivery of weapons to Gaza during a summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they met Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Also on Monday, aid workers and doctors from around the world entered war-ravaged Gaza with medical supplies, food and blankets. Injured Gazans were also allowed to cross into Egypt through the Rafah crossing point, while other inhabitants began returning to their homes, surveying the damage and attempting to recover some of their belongings.