Hamas vows revenge on Israeli airstrike in Gaza

www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-07 15:31:20

GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Islamic resistance movement Hamas vowed Tuesday an immediate revenge after Israeli airstrike on a Hamas youth training camp in eastern Gaza City killed 14 Palestinians and wounded 30 others.

Musheer al Masri, a spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza City, said the war between Israel and the movement is continued and opened. "They hit us and we hit them, and the blood of the killed would remain a fire in the face of the enemy and would encourage Hamas not to stop the fighting," he said.

He described the killing of the 14 Palestinians as a "massacre".

"This strike reflects the ugly face of the enemy against the Palestinian people," said al Masri.

Hamas had claimed responsibility a week ago for carrying out a twin suicide bombing attack in the southern Israel town of Beer Sheva, which killed 16 Israelis.

Meanwhile, Mohamed al Hindi, a senior Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement leader in Gaza, termed the Israeli strike on Gaza as a serious escalation against the Palestinian people.

He told reporters "the strike has nothing to do with the double attack in Beer Sheva, it is an obvious severe Israeli military escalation against the Palestinian people."

He described the attack as an "awful massacre", adding it coincided with the visit of an Egyptian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit to the Palestinian territories. The Egyptian delegation, which also includes intelligence security chief Omer Suleiman, met on Monday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and presented a security plan to prepare for the expected Israeli evacuation from the Gaza Strip.

"This escalation is a message to the Egyptians sent by Israel and saying that Israel doesn't care about any political effort and wants to use the current world circumstances to eliminate the Palestinian cause," said al Hindi.

He said Israel would be totally mistaken if it believes that shelling and assassinations would end the Palestinian armed resistance, adding these attacks are empowering the armed resistance against the occupation."

Palestinian witnesses and security sources reported that Israeli Apache helicopters fired at least five missiles at the training camp which belongs to Islamic resistance movement Hamas in the eastern neighborhood of Tufah in Gaza City.

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