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Tens of thousands gather for Hamas anniversary in Gaza
AFP, December
15, 2007
by Mehdi
Lebouachera
GAZA CITY, Dec
15, 2007 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people rallied in
central Gaza City on Saturday to mark Hamas's 20th
anniversary, in a show of force six months after the
Islamist movement seized control of the territory.
Waving green
flags and banners, throngs of Palestinians poured into
Katiba Square ahead of the rally at which Hamas leader
Ismail Haniya and other officials reaffirmed their
commitment to armed struggle against Israel.
"Resistance and
jihad (holy struggle) is the best path to the liberation of
Palestine, not negotiations and meetings, sitting at round
tables and exchanging smiles and chuckles with the Jews,"
Haniya told the crowd.
The rally was
the largest show of strength since the Islamists seized
control in Gaza in June, routing forces loyal to president
Mahmud Abbas and futher deepening the economic and political
isolation of the coastal strip.
It came just a
month after a similar mass rally by Abbas's Fatah movement
ended in bloodshed when Hamas forces opened fire, killing
several people.
But speaking
from the main podium and wearing a green Hamas baseball cap
Haniya again called for dialogue with his Fatah rivals
"without conditions," accusing Abbas's government in the
West Bank town of Ramallah of preventing a return to unity.
"We are for
dialogue and we call for it and welcome it, but the door to
dialogue there (in Ramallah) has been closed. We say there
should be a dialogue with no winners, no losers, and no
conditions," he said.
Abbas has said
he is willing to return to the negotiating table with Hamas
but only on the condition that it reverses what he calls its
"coup" and gives control of Gaza back to his Palestian
Authority.
"We are ready
to explore any issue," Haniya said, "but I say by God we
will not accept any condition to return to negotiations."
Meanwhile
Palestinian security forces said they arrested at least 26
Hamas supporters in raids across the West Bank, the latest
in a series of measures aimed at dampening the Islamists'
power in the territory Abbas controls.
Hamas
television said that supporters in Gaza streamed in from
towns and villages all across the coastal territory, home to
some 1.5 million people, in cars and horse-drawn wagons,
blocking streets throughout the city centre.
Tens of
thousands of veiled women, masked men and children waving
Hamas flags mixed in the crowd, but the exact number of
people attending the rally remained unclear.
A huge banner
reading "We will not recognise Israel" was placed on the
backdrop of the stage in defiance of Israel's closing of
Gaza to all but essential humanitarian supplies after
Hamas's bloody seizure of power.
Below it hung
the portraits of past Hamas leaders who had been killed by
Israeli forces.
Former minister
and senior Hamas member Said Siam told AFP that the massive
turnout "is the answer to those who say Hamas is losing
ground."
And top Hamas
leader Mahmud al-Zahar said that "our message to the world
is that this movement cannot be destroyed.
"This
celebration shows how in 20 years we have grown from a
movement of 1,000 people to huge numbers," he told AFP.
"The roots (of
Hamas) stretch into the heart of the nation and into every
part of the land," Mushir al-Masri, a former
parliamentarian, shouted to the crowd from the podium.
"Twenty years
-- from the stone to the knife, from the bullet to the bomb,
from the mortar to the rocket, and from the martyrdom
operations (suicide bombings) to the tunnels of Hell."
Hamas's exiled
leader Khaled Meshaal said in comments published on the
movement's website on Saturday that the Palestinians are
capable of launching a new uprising against Israeli
occupation like the intifadas of 1987 and 2000.
"Our people are
capable of launching a third or fourth intifada until
victory is ours," the Damascus-based Hamas chief said.
Meshaal
admitted that his movement's 20th anniversary came amid
"difficult circumstances and a painful situation for the
besieged Palestinians in Gaza."
In September
Israel declared the territory a "hostile entity" and the
following month began restricting fuel supplies, creating
what the World Health Organization described on Monday as an
"intolerable" humanitarian situation.
Israel, along
with the European Union and the United States, regards Hamas
as a terrorist organization, but in January 2006 it won an
overwhelming victory over the long-dominant Fatah party in
democratic parliamentary elections. |
