GAZA CITY, 17 January 2007 — Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said yesterday the tunnels dug by Palestinians under the Gaza Strip were aimed at foiling possible Israeli ground offensives and not at killing prominent leaders of the rival Fatah faction.
Fatah, locked in a power struggle with the governing Islamist Hamas movement, said on Monday the tunnels ran under roads and some homes of some of its top officials and were rigged with explosives that could have been used to kill them.
Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubida said the tunnels, discovered in recent days by Fatah-led security forces, were built to confront the “Zionist enemy,” a reference to Israel.
He denied any tunnels had been dug underneath the homes of Fatah leaders, describing the accusation as “politically motivated.”
At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called for fresh elections last month, raising the stakes in his bitter power struggle with Hamas.
Abu Ubida told reporters that “Al-Qassam brigades will not let those who leading the coup current to uncover the resistance plans that been set to confront the occupation.”
He added that Hamas would not dig tunnels to assassinate the symbols of coup and the followers of the occupation but “We will let the people, the nation and the history to bring those followers to the account.”
Meanwhile, a survey published yesterday found that Fatah faction would defeat the Hamas group if parliamentary elections were held now.
The poll, conducted by the Ramallah-based independent Near East Consulting, also showed that a majority of the Palestinians want the Islamist group to soften its position toward Israel.
The survey showed the once-dominant Fatah faction winning 40 percent of a parliamentary vote and its rival Hamas 23 percent. Remaining voters said they would back other factions or refrain from casting ballots.
If presidential elections were held now in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, the moderate Abbas would win 38 percent of the vote compared with 18 percent for Hamas’ Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the poll showed.
Abbas shocked Palestinians last month when he called for new parliamentary and presidential elections in a bid to break a deadlock with Hamas after inconclusive talks on a unity government.
Hamas was voted into power in January 2006, drawing Western sanctions over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and embrace existing interim peace deals. The sanctions have deepened economic hardship for many Palestinians.
