HAMAS has issued a statement saying that the Gaza beach massacre, when an Israeli gunboat shelled a Gaza beach murdering 15 mainly women and children last Friday, leaves all options open to the Hamas movement, which has ended its truce.
The statement published last Saturday says: ‘Once again the Zionist enemy has proved its extreme brutality and infinite terrorism, which are undeterred by any ethical values or humane feelings.
‘The Zionist terrorist machine is killing, oppressing and tearing apart our Palestinian people. It is opening the doors of death, destruction and devastation at every moment, thus adding to its strangulating siege on our steadfast people more suffering and continued terrorism, which are increasingly intensifying and escalating.
‘The brutal occupation troops have opened a new war front against our people and their active and struggling forces on land, at sea and in the air through killing, shelling and assassination.
‘In less than 24 hours, these acts claimed the lives of 14 martyrs, beginning with heroic martyr and mujahid commander Jamal Abu-Samahdanah and his heroic and mujahid colleagues last night in valiant Rafah.
‘At midday today, these forces once again opened their terrorist and malicious fire against an entire innocent family east of Jabaliya, then escalated their bloody terrorism to kill in cold blood with their shells innocent beachgoers on the seashore.
‘They killed an entire family, including children, in a scene that brings back to mind acts of genocide.
‘Their US-made planes bombarded a vehicle carrying three field cadres from the Al-Qassam Brigades, who were moderately injured as a result, in a bloody episode in which the terrorist Zionists satisfied their overflowing Nazism and crazy sadism.
‘While saluting the steadfastness of our folks and people, wishing mercy for our heroic martyrs and calling for the speedy recovery of our wounded, we in Hamas emphasize the following:
‘1. The mass killing of our folks and people is a serious massacre, extreme crime and a campaign of genocide that strips the misfit Zionist entity, as is always the case, of any human value or moral deterrent and exposes it for what it really is and has always been since its establishment, a usurping entity that is overflowing with malice, killing, bloodshed and hatred of anything human, and terrorist gangs that know nothing but violence, terrorism and the ending of innocent and defenceless lives.
‘2. The repeated massacres and the campaigns of genocide committed by the terrorist Zionist entity reinforce our faith in our firm beliefs and well-established principles about the impossibility of recognising this misfit entity and its criminal state.
‘They also expose the colluding conspirators of various types, shapes and colours who are forcibly pushing our people towards recognising the legitimacy of the usurping occupation and bargaining, with a sense of injustice and aggression, about their legitimate rights and principles.
‘What kind of a referendum is it that some are trying to impose on our people? What call for recognising the legality of this criminal and usurping occupier is involved in this serious referendum while its killing and terror machine is shedding our blood, ending the lives of our sons, children and women, and turning our life into unbearable suffering and hell?
‘3. The magnitude of the Zionist crimes reflects the true and unchanging Zionist policy towards our people and cause. This demonstrates the absurdity of the calls for the pursuit of peaceful options in dealing with the occupier.
‘It also begs the advocates of such calls to adopt honourable positions and cohesive policies that can stand up to the usurping occupier and its criminal schemes and practices and get closer to the suffering, hopes and aspirations of our people instead of going along with external visions and plans.
‘4. The intensity of the Zionist crimes requires official and popular Arab and Islamic solidarity that lives up to the situation and the responsibility.
‘It also requires a serious and active stance on all political, media, financial and moral levels to support our people in the face of the criminal practices and oppressive schemes that aim to bring them down to their knees and liquidate their national cause.
‘5. We strongly denounce the unethical Western stance regarding the ongoing crimes and campaigns of genocide on the Palestinian land. While the criminal Zionist occupation is wreaking havoc on our land and killing our elderly, women and children in cold blood, we do not hear a word of condemnation of these growing crimes.
‘In the meantime, biased Western countries are mobilising their political and media efforts and imposing a tough and unjust siege on our people who are not demanding more than their right to a homeland and a decent living. We call on these countries to reconsider their biased and unjust stances, back down on the unjust siege and denounce the despicable crimes committed against our people.
‘6. We emphasise our people’s right to defend themselves in the face of the open aggression against our people and children. Let the Zionist entity assume full responsibility for the results of its aggression and terrorism which leave all options open.
‘The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas’
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Minister Dr Mahmud al-Zahhar strongly condemned the US stand on the Zionist enemy’s crime, killing an entire family yesterday, 9 June, describing the US stand as a stand of collusion that seeks to justify systematic terrorism and the racist extermination operations.
Al-Zahhar affirmed the Palestinian people’s right to self-defence.
Palestinian medical sources announced that 10 Palestinians were martyred yesterday, Friday, in three Zionist raids on various areas in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including a raid that killed seven members of the same family while they were on the beach.
Televisions, Arab satellite TV and news agencies carried touching pictures of a terrified girl in tears while looking for her father and the other members of her family on the beach where she found out that they were all killed in the barbaric bombardment by the Zionist gunboats.
Dr Al-Zahhar said in a statement: ‘Our Palestinian people and our Arab and Islamic nation have been stricken by the odious crime that the (Israeli) forces of occupation committed in the Gaza Strip on Friday, 9 June 2006, leading to the martyrdom of 10 Palestinians and the injury of scores of Palestinians, one day after the assassination of leader Jamal Abu-Samahdanah, the inspector-general in the Interior Ministry.’
Al-Zahhar added that the Israeli military escalation is programmed and pre-planned to subdue our heroic people, who have proved that they are undefeatable and that they do not bend in front of the aggression.
Al-Zahhar added: ‘The forces of occupation bear full responsibility for the results to be entailed by these odious crimes.’
The Palestinian foreign minister added: ‘We condemn the colluding US stand that tries to justify systematic terrorism and the racist extermination operations against our people, stressing our people’s right to defend themselves against these massacres that are being committed in the sight and hearing of the world.’
Al-Zahhar said that the siege that is being imposed on our people, coupled with the pressure that some Palestinian quarters are bringing to bear on the Palestinian government to impose concessions that will prejudice the national constants, have encouraged the occupation to persist in shedding Palestinian blood and committing reprehensible crimes such as killing children and women.
