GAZA CITY, 1 January 2003 — Hamas vowed that the liquidation of its leaders would not halt its anti-Israeli attacks after a military chief survived the first targeted killing operation against the main Palestinian militant movement in months.
“This will not stop the resistance of our people or change the position of Hamas which advocates the pursuit of battle until the end of the occupation and the recovery of the rights of the Palestinian people,” leading Hamas figure Ismail Haniya said on a day Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat charged in a speech marking the anniversary of his Fatah movement that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not want peace.
The raid on Tuesday evening, which left 11 people injured in the center of Gaza City, was a “new Israeli crime”, which showed the government of Sharon was intent on “ending the intifada and annihilating the Palestinian cause”, Haniya added.
Jamal Jarah, a leader of Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, and another military activist escaped unhurt when Israeli helicopter gunships failed to hit their car with a first strike.
The pair managed to flee before the helicopters fired a second rocket, blowing up the vehicle, witnesses said, while 11 passers-by sustained shrapnel wounds, according to medics.
Hamas has not carried out any attacks on Israeli targets since early September, although it recently refused to declare a halt to campaigns even against Israeli civilians.
Israel has tried to kill several senior Hamas figures in air raids this year, including its spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and political chief Abdelaziz Rantissi, but had held off on such operations since October. A senior member of the smaller Islamic Jihad movement was killed in a Gaza airstrike.
Meanwhile, Arafat said in a televised address yesterday: “Our hand is still extended for a peace of the brave, we strongly believe in this peace and this belief will not wane despite the grief and suffering endured by our people.”
“This Israeli government does not want the peace of the brave, does not work toward resuming the peace process and does not want to implement the roadmap or come back to the negotiations table,” he said.
Arafat charged that Israeli Prime Minister Sharon refuses to comply with the demands of the internationally-backed road map blueprint for peace, which paves the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Sharon returned the accusation and charges that Arafat is the main obstacle to any resumption of peace talks after more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed almost 3,700 people.
“Instead, Sharon’s government remains arrogant and continues its aggression with the construction of the apartheid wall,” Arafat said in an address from the West Bank town of Ramallah where he has been a virtual prisoner for about two years.
His speech came a day ahead of the 39th anniversary of Fatah’s first armed attack in Israel, which is celebrated as the start of the “Palestinian revolution” although Arafat officially founded Fatah in Kuwait in the late 1950s.
Thousands of people were gathered in front of the Palestinian Parliament building in Gaza City to listen to the annual address.
