Gaza massacres being waged under 'lies, false pretexts,' says Hamas
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 6, IRNA – Israel will no doubt wreak untold destruction, death and suffering in Gaza, but it will meet the same fate as it did in Lebanon, according to a Hamas leader.
Head of the Hamas political bureau, Khalid Mash'al, vowed that the Palestinians “will not be broken by siege and bombardment, and will never surrender to occupation.”
“For 18 months my people in Gaza have been under siege, incarcerated inside the world's biggest prison, sealed off from land, air and sea, caged and starved, denied even medication for our sick. After the slow death policy came the bombardment,” Mash’al said.
In an article published in the Guardian Tuesday, he said that since the latest Israeli massacres were launched 10 days ago, “more than 540 have been killed and thousands permanently maimed. A third are women and children. Whole families have been massacred, some while they slept.”
“This river of blood is being shed under lies and false pretexts. For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start,” Mash’al said.
He referred to Israel tightening its inhumane siege, including repeatedly cutting off electricity and water supplies, instead of meeting its requirement to open crossings to Gaza.
“The collective punishment did not halt, but accelerated - as did the assassinations and killings. Thirty Gazans were killed by Israeli fire and hundreds of patients died as a direct effect of the siege during the so-called ceasefire,” the Hamas leader said.
He said that while there were also no rocket attacks launched from the West Bank, 50 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured at the hands of the Israelis last years.
Mash’al also blamed Israel’s belligerence for the failure to renew the ceasefire by again refusing to lift the blockade and open all Gaza crossings.
“The truth is Israel seeks a one-sided ceasefire, observed by my people alone, in return for siege, starvation, bombardment, assassinations, incursions and colonial settlement. What Israel wants is a gratuitous ceasefire,” he said.
He described as “absurd” that the logic of those who demand that Hamas to stop its resistance. “They absolve the aggressor and occupier, armed with the deadliest weapons of death and destruction, of responsibility, while blaming the victim, prisoner and occupied.”
“Our modest, home-made rockets are our cry of protest to the world. Israel and its American and European sponsors want us to be killed in silence. But die in silence we will not,” the Hamas leader pledged.
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