Roughly one week after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claimed Hamas was willing to limit themselves to unarmed “resistance” against Israel, the Gaza terror group instead expressed an interest in a military campaign against Israel’s capital city. The Hamas Department of Refugee Affairs called in a press release for the formation of an army to take “occupied” Jerusalem from Israel, according to the website for the Hamas armed wing. The group called upon Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to take on the task of creating the army with the help of other Arab states.
“We are confident that the battle for liberating Jerusalem has become closer than ever,” said the Hamas refugee department’s press release. The department expressed an interest in seeing Palestinian refugees take part in the army, calling as well for an Arab military command center to guide the force.
Hamas is the de facto government in Gaza, and they are also working on a national reconciliation deal with Abbas’ Fatah party. Abbas has previously engaged in peace talks with Israel, although he has suspended those until Israel meets the Palestinians’ preconditions for resuming negotiations.
Just last week the UK’s The Independent newspaper reported that Haniyeh called to “liberate” all of the territory controlled by Israel, as well as saying that “armed resistance” is the only option for doing so.
(By Staff, www.themideastupdate.com, December 22, 2011)