Hamas: Gaza war is like Second Lebanon War ~ All Options are Open

 
Source: Haaretz, 27-12-2008

The "Israeli" military campaign in the Gaza Strip will closely resemble the Second Lebanon War, Hamas vowed on Saturday after a series of "Israel" Air Force strikes on the coastal enclave.
Hamas officials said all of Gaza's security compounds were destroyed. Hamas said it would seek revenge, including launching new rocket attacks on "Israel" and sending suicide (martyrdom) bombers to "Israel".

"Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking on a Gaza radio station.
"Hamas is in good shape and the government is in good shape," Barhoum told Al Jazeera. "The world will see many things from us. Now all options are open before the Az a-Din al-Qassam Brigades" (Hamas' military wing).

"Even if ‘Israel' kills the current heads of Hamas, there are hundreds of others that are capable of leading the organization," Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, said following the IAF strikes.
Al-Masri warned "Israel" that the targeting of senior Hamas officials will be met with "a harsh response" from the Islamist group.

"Assassinations of Hamas heads will not weaken us and we will not lose control but rather they will boost our forces and our stability," al-Masri said. "Within the movement there are leaders that will fill the missing ranks at any moment." He added that Hamas leaders are cognizant of the threats on their lives and thus take the necessary precautions.

"All fighters are ordered to respond to the ‘Israeli' slaughter," said a statement by the Islamic Jihad group, echoing statements issued by Hamas and other armed factions.
The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt condemned the IAF attacks as "massacres" that were carried out "in criminal fashion."

"They are trying to subjugate the Arab and Islamic world through these massacres in Gaza - God willing victory will come," the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told Al Jazeera.
Hamam Said, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, called on the Jordanian government to abrogate its peace treaty with "Israel". He also urged all Arab armies to embark on a war against "Israel".

"The time has come for us to crush the Jewish enemy and to purify Palestine," Said said. "Everyone must take to the streets and highways, come from wherever you are."
Labor unions in Jordan organized a mass demonstration to protest the IAF strikes in Gaza. "Egypt? The mother of the world, is not Gaza part of the world?" read one placard which was brandished during the protest.

The demonstrators called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh to forge a united front.
Hadash, the predominantly Arab leftist party, will stage a demonstration on Saturday in Nazareth to protest the IAF operations in Gaza. Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh called on the government "to immediately halt the crime in the Gaza Strip."

"Escalation will not bring quiet and calm," Barakeh said. "It is inconceivable for the Palestinian people in Gaza to live between starvation and bombardment. The government and the defense (war) minister are trying to gain political capital in an election period on account of the bloodletting of the Palestinian people."

MK Jamal Zahalka, who is the chairman of the Balad faction, called for Defense (War) Minister Ehud Barak to be tried for "war crimes" in Gaza.
"Barak is trying to win votes in exchange for Palestinian blood," he said.