http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009110213118818.html
Sunday, January 11, 2009
00:51 Mecca time, 21:51 GMT
Hamas: Gaza war an end to peace bid
Meshaal said that any international monitoring force in Gaza
would be treated as occupation force [AFP]
Hamas has said that the Gaza war has put an end to chances of
negotiations with Israel, calling on Arabs to pressure Tel Aviv to seize its
attacks on the Gaza Strip.
In a televised speech on Saturday, Khaled Meshaal, the exiled-Hamas
political leader, said Israel's offensive on Gaza, which have killed over 800
Palestinians, had failed because Hamas was still firing rockets at Israel.
"You have finished off the last chance and breath for settlement and
negotiations," Meshaal said.
"In all modesty... I can say with full confidence that on the military
level the enemy has totally failed, it has not achieved anything.
"Has it stopped the rockets?" he asked of Israel's declared aim in
launching the offensive.
'New Intifada'
Meshaal called on Arabs to pressure their leaders and the international
community through protests.
"We are living the hardest moments of the resistance now, we want another
intifada in Palestine and on the Arab street," he said, calling on the Arabs to
continue protesting.
Meshaal said that Israel was covering up the true nature of its losses by
saying that troops had been killed by friendly fire and accidents.
"What did you achieve through this war... other than the killing of
children, of innocents?" he asked the Israeli leadership.
"You have lost on the moral and humanitarian fronts... and you have
created a resistance in every house," said Meshaal.
'Real Holocaust'
He slammed Israel's assault on Gaza as a "Holocaust" in which the blood
of Palestinian children was being shed to bolster prospects in next month's
Israeli elections.
IN DEPTH
Analysis and features from Gaza and Israel
Al Jazeera Labs: Report on and track the war
Send us your views and eyewitness videos
Watch our coverage of the war on Gaza
"The enemy has failed by creating a real Holocaust on the soil of Gaza
"Palestinian blood has become a means to win elections," he said,
addressing the Israeli people whose leaders are to face off in general
elections on February 10.
Meshaal's comments come as a Hamas delegation is in Egypt, together with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss an Egyptian cease-fire proposal
and possible international monitoring force to enforce an agreement.
Meshaal said that any international monitoring force in the Gaza strip
would be treated as "occupation" force.
"Before any negotiations could take place, Israel had to halt attacks,
pull out of the Gaza Strip and lift the siege of Gaza," Meshaal said.
He also insisted on Hamas' inclusion, together with the Egyptians and the
Europeans, in any monitoring system on the Rafah border.
A 2005 agreement to monitor the Rafah crossing did not include Hamas and
Egyptians have said they will stick to that agreement.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
