Hamas warns of popular outbreak against Israeli siege

Apr 8, 2008, 13:44 GMT

Gaza - The Islamic Hamas movement warned Tuesday that a further tightening of Israeli sanctions against the Gaza Strip would backfire and that 'all the options in any direction are open for the people to break the siege.'

'The Palestinian people will not keep still in the face of their siege and suffering,' Hamas legislator Khalil al-Hayya told a news conference in Gaza city. '

He said Palestinian factions will not adhere to a ceasefire in the Strip so long as Israel kept up its blockade on the salient.

Israel closed off the Gaza borders in June last year, after Hamas gunmen seized security control of the Strip, after routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The blockade was tightened even further in January after an escalation in rocket attacks launched from the enclave on nearby Israeli towns and villages.

Egypt also tightened its control of the Strip's southern border following the Hamas takeover last year.

In the north-eastern Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military, witnesses and medical officials said.

A military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said troops on what she described as 'routine' operations inside the salient were shot at and returned fire, saying they had hit at least one of the gunmen.

The witnesses however said the Israeli forces, which entered the Strip east of Jabaliya refugee camp in the morning, shelled a blue Volkswagen vehicle which was driving near 'the eastern cemetery' where the Israeli tanks were based.

The radical the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said the fatality was one of its members who had been on a 'Jihad mission' when he was killed.