We won’t recognize Israel, says Meshaal

GAZA: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal vowed yesterday never to recognize Israel and said his party would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.
“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land,” he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally, the highlight of his three-day stay in Gaza.
“We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take.”
In an uncompromising speech, Meshaal also vowed to free Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, indicating Hamas militants would try to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as a bargaining chip.
Israel last year released 1,027 Palestinians from its jails in return for the liberation of Gilad Shalit, a conscript soldier who was seized by Palestinian guerrillas in 2006 and hidden for more than five years in Gaza.
Meshaal crossed from Egypt on Friday on his first ever visit to Gaza and his first to the Palestinian territories since 1975. His speech was set to be the headline event of the rally.
Meshaal arrived at the main stage in the Al-Qitaba complex west of Gaza City which was transformed into a sea of green Hamas flags. He was accompanied by his deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk and Gaza’s Hamas Premier Ismail Haniya.
The celebrations come just over two weeks after an Egyptian-brokered truce ended eight days of bloodshed with Israel which left 174 Palestinians dead.
“We used only 10 percent of our capacity in the fighting,” a masked spokesman for Hamas told the crowd.
Fatah is the rival Palestinian faction of President Mahmud Abbas and his West Bank-based administration.
Around the rally venue, security forces were out in strength, closing off nearby roads from the early hours.
Dozens of masked members of Hamas kept watch from surrounding rooftops.
Huge portraits of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, assassinated by Israel in 2004, and Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari, assassinated by Israel on November 14 this year, were on the main stage.
Head of Hamas public activity Ashraf Abu Zaed said he expected more than 200,000 people to participate in the anniversary celebrations, which were also being held in other Gaza towns.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP that at least 3,000 people from Arab and Islamic states had arrived in Gaza in recent days to attend the events.
Founded in 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Hamas was inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.