5 May 2009

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement has vowed Sunday to confront any Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip with all available means, pledging not to surrender or concede any of the national constants of the Palestinian people.

The Movement also described the Israeli occupation government as "criminal" government that aims at finishing off the Palestinian resistance to leave Palestinian people defenseless.

"The successive Zionist governments were all criminals and terrorists governments that based their policies on military escalation, and on targetting the Palestinian resistance", underscored MP Dr. Salah Al-Bardaweel of Hamas Movement in an interview with the PIC.

Bardaweel described the incumbent Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu as "a mixture of terrorists' masters" coming from the Likud, the Labor, and Israel Beituni parties, who were ready to commit more atrocities against the unarmed Palestinian people.

He also pointed out that the Netanyahu government doesn’t seek peace because, he added, peace doesn’t exist in the lexicon of that government that always talks about war, and threatens to launch another atrocious war against the Palestinian people.

Bardaweel, however, anticipated that the IOA might target the Gaza Strip again either by targeting what had remained of the infrastructure in the tiny Strip, or it might target leaders of the Palestinian resistance.

He said that the IOA doesn’t need pretexts to carry out such aggression because the Israeli atrocities against Palestinian people never ceased.

The Hamas's official also called on the Arab and Muslim countries and on the international community to protect the Palestinian people from the Israeli war machine, and to clearly reject any Israeli attack on the Strip, highlighting that Hamas would resist any IOF aggression on the coastal Strip.

Meanwhile, the PA health ministry warned of the sharp increase in the number of Palestinian citizens dying as a result of the Israeli blockade on the Strip, adding that the death of Palestinian child Mohammed Rabie Qabbani, 5, of the Buraij refugee camp brought number of Palestinian citizens who died because of the siege to 329 martyrs.

The ministry also asserted that the IOA denied tens of sick Palestinian citizens the permits to go for medical treatment abroad.

In this regard, the ministry called on Egypt to open the Rafah crossing point in order to save the lives of those Palestinians some of whom were in intensive care units in the poorly-equipped local hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has so far refused to heed calls from their Palestinian brethrens to open the vital crossing points alleging it was bound by "international agreements", leaving the 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of the Gaza Strip to their fate.

Hamas expresses indignation at Arab stand toward Gaza siege

Hamas on Monday said that nothing justified retaining a strangling siege on one and a half million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for more than two years despite all international and legal reports that acknowledged the tragic humanitarian conditions in the Strip.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum in a press release said that most of the victims of the siege are women, children and wounded and ill persons other than the university students.

He expressed surprise at the consecutive Arab summits' inability to adopt practical steps to break the siege despite owning all pressure cards. The US and Israel could not punish the entire Arab Nation if it really decided to back the besieged Palestinian people, he elaborated.

"We realize that the siege on Gaza is a Zio-American decision par excellence, but breaking the siege on Gaza is an Arab-Egyptian decision par excellence," Barhoum elaborated.

The spokesman said that the Arab rulers and ruled should bear the responsibility of adopting strong and effective resolutions to end the policy of mass punishment and the oppressive siege on Gaza.

"It is not reasonable that our people in Gaza face slow death under siege and destruction while the Nation is watching idle by and Arab leaders give a blind eye to the crimes (committed in Gaza)," he said, adding that the official Arab stance did not live up to the crimes against humanity being committee in Gaza.

Barhoum finally said, "It is no longer sensible that Zionist flags remain fluttering over Arab capitals while the siege on Gaza is still in full force".