Hamas warns Israel off military action

GAZA - Hamas’ armed wing said Saturday it was “stronger than before” and warned Israel against launching any new military action in the Gaza Strip, where it said Israel was attempting to escalate the situation.

“If the occupation (Israel) wants to examine our reaction, it will be met with a harsh response,” al-Qassam Brigades Spokesman Abu Obeida told a news conference in Gaza. “We therefore advise the enemy not to commit this stupidity.”

His comments came two years after Israel launched a devastating three-week offensive on Gaza, which it said was aimed at preventing the Islamist organisation from launching rockets at Israeli towns and villages.

Around 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in what became known as the Gaza War.

Rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza have increased recently, as have Israeli airstrikes on the Strip, leading to fears that another round of fighting in Gaza is in the offing.

“We are now stronger than before and during the war, and our silence over the past two years was only for evaluating the situation,” Abu Obeida said. “We won’t face the current attempts of the enemy to escalate the situation with silence.”

Hamas seized full control of the coastal enclave in June 2007, after routing security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party.

Israel considers the enclave a “hostile entity” and imposes a tight blockade on the territory.

Abu Obeida said that the news conference was being held to mark the second anniversary of the war, which began Dec 27, 2008, and the 23rd anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

“Over the past 23 years, 1,808 Hamas militants have been killed, and we carried out 1,115 military attacks against the Zionist occupation. 58 percent of the martyrs were killed after Hamas triumphed in the legislative elections in 2006,” he said.

He said that the group first began its military operations with stones and empty bottles, then knives, before going on to make use of (suicide) bombers and rockets.

“We now have an arsenal of missiles and rockets. We began manufacturing our own arms and we developed our abilities in extremely difficult and complicated conditions,” he said.

Over the past decade Hamas has fired 3,506 rockets and 7,475 mortars at Israeli targets, according to Abu Obeida.