Haniyeh (Hamas): Rocket fire to stop if Israel halts attacks

[Micah68]

Haniyeh: Rocket fire to stop if Israel halts attacks
24 Nov 2006 20:17:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24384562.htm

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday most Palestinian militant groups would halt their rocket fire against Israel if the Jewish state stopped its attacks against the Palestinians.


Israeli forces killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and a militant in Gaza, hospital officials said, as the army pushed forward with a major offensive in the territory, aimed mainly at stopping militants from firing rockets into the Jewish state.


"The Palestinian factions have shown a readiness ... to stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip in return for an Israeli commitment to stop the aggression," Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza, referring to Hamas and four other militant groups.


"Dealing positively with this would lead to achieving ... calm and stability in the region, but if the occupation (Israel) wants to pursue its aggression, our people will have no choice but to stick to their right to defend themselves with the capabilities they have," Haniyeh said."


Palestinian factions in Gaza late on Thursday had offered to stop firing rockets if Israel halted military action in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israel rejected the offer.


"If the Palestinian terror factions, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, stop terror activities from the Gaza Strip, Israel would have no reason or incentive to operate in Gaza," said Israeli government spokeswoman, Miri Eisin.

Haniyeh said if Israel accepted the terms for a truce over the rocket fire that the five Palestinian groups had agreed upon, more armed factions could accept the deal as well.


But the militant Popular Resistance Committees said soon after he made his comments that its gunmen in Gaza fired two rockets towards Israel to avenge the army's killing on Thursday of three of its militants, including a senior commander.


Israel began its offensive in June soon after militants in Gaza abducted an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. Israel has killed nearly 400 Palestinians, half of them civilians, during its assault. Three Israelis have also died.


PALESTINIAN BOY, MILITANT KILLED

Palestinian factions have frequently fired rockets into Israel in recent years and have increased their bombardments since the start of the Gaza offensive, sometimes averaging several dozen a day.


Such strikes have rarely caused casualties and not all land inside the Jewish state, but militants have in the past year been able to make more sophisticated rockets, which are deadlier and have longer ranges.


In northern Gaza, Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli troops shot a 10-year-old boy dead. Israel's army said it was not aware of the incident. Hamas said troops also killed one of its militants.


Elsewhere in northern Gaza, two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded when Palestinian gunmen detonated an explosive device near troops, the army said.


The fresh fighting coincides with a visit to Gaza by President Mahmoud Abbas of the once-dominant Fatah faction, who has been meeting Haniyeh to try to revive talks on forging a unity government.


Haniyeh is a member of the Hamas movement, which ousted Fatah in elections earlier this year and has resisted international pressure to renounce violence and recognise the state of Israel.


"Hamas will be a major component in any government that would be formed," Haniyeh said. "This issue has finished and it is non-negotiable with anyone in the international community."


Hamas accused Abbas on Friday of imposing what it called unacceptable conditions for a unity cabinet, including the release of a captured Israeli soldier and a halt to attacks on Israel.


Palestinians hope a unity government will convince Western nations to renew aid to the Palestinian Authority after sanctions were imposed because of Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence. (Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Damascus)

 

[minister50]

Promises from a terrorist group. Yes they want a cease fire so they can build up their resources and indoctrinate all they can to their terrorist cause. I think many people are not fooled anymore by their lies and deceptions. They want peace as much as Satan does.

 

[gwynedd1]

Promises from a terrorist group. Yes they want a cease fire so they can build up their resources and indoctrinate all they can to their terrorist cause. I think many people are not fooled anymore by their lies and deceptions. They want peace as much as Satan does.

Hello minister50,

I will agree that the terrorists among them think this exactly. That is why the Palestinians need to root out the traitors among them who will lead them to their destruction.
That said Israel is a government in power that was a terrorist group from the beginning when they waged war against Britain. They do not submit to Jesus and reject him as much as any Muslim. The fruits of it will be the same and Israel needs to root out the terrorists among them as well.
If you are taking a position of one anti-Christ religion over another then you have a preference for Satan to be one way or another. It is as if one seduced by the one in the red dress over the blue dress and no regard is paid to the destruction underneath.
One is either a goat or a sheep and your implying of another way is not to be found anywhere in the scriptures.

I have posted this 20 times and it has been ignored every time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5299938.stm

This one act makes up for 100 suicide bombs but not one peep or comment . I know the reason; it completely destroys the mythologies that Israel is a just nation anymore than the peoples around them. Palestinians may even claim that rogue terrorists do not speak for them. In this case, this vile and murderous act was done with the authority of state granted by the vaunted light of democracy in the Middle East.

 

[jiminpa]

Haven't we danced this dance before? Didn't those of us paying attention say that Hamas would only honor a ceasefire long enough to rearm, and restrengthen? But the past and it's endless looping is irrelevant when there's an opportunity to attack Israel by ignoring the truth.

Israel has no more rejected Jesus than every other nation on the planet, so why does it only apply to them?

 

[Micah68]

Haven't we danced this dance before? Didn't those of us paying attention say that Hamas would only honor a ceasefire long enough to rearm, and restrengthen? But the past and it's endless looping is irrelevant when there's an opportunity to attack Israel by ignoring the truth.

Israel has no more rejected Jesus than every other nation on the planet, so why does it only apply to them?

Wow, never seen a better two step. Guess you never heard who was responsible for the creation of Hamas and why? Sounds like a couple of bullies, 'He hit me first', 'No, he hit me first', etc., etc., etc.

 

[gwynedd1]

Haven't we danced this dance before? Didn't those of us paying attention say that Hamas would only honor a ceasefire long enough to rearm, and restrengthen? But the past and it's endless looping is irrelevant when there's an opportunity to attack Israel by ignoring the truth.

Israel has no more rejected Jesus than every other nation on the planet, so why does it only apply to them?

Who said it does? My question is why atrocities by Israel is given a free pass.

 

[gwynedd1]

Wow, never seen a better two step. Guess you never heard who was responsible for the creation of Hamas and why? Sounds like a couple of bullies, 'He hit me first', 'No, he hit me first', etc., etc., etc.

Hello Michah68,

How does one define blindness? I was told that Israel would not create Hamas. Israel would not support Palestinian opposition groups. Now this was said just as everyone knows that Israel now supports Fatah in opposition to Hamas When I pointed out Olmert said Israel created Hamas in Palestine this it just was not good enough. The division of Iraq and Iran in the war is well known as the US and Israel supplied both sides. But Israel could not possible have anyhting to do with playing one Palestinian over the other even though that is exactly what they have done in the open and in secrete. But blind is blind.

 

[Micah68]

Hello Michah68,

How does one define blindness? I was told that Israel would not create Hamas. Israel would not support Palestinian opposition groups. Now this was said just as everyone knows that Israel now supports Fatah in opposition to Hamas When I pointed out Olmert said Israel created Hamas in Palestine this it just was not good enough. The division of Iraq and Iran in the war is well known as the US and Israel supplied both sides. But Israel could not possible have anything to do with playing one Palestinian over the other even though that is exactly what they have done in the open and in secrete. But blind is blind.

Yes I do agree with you, especially with both parties playing one against the other, but isn't this the way the game is played? So much that people just don't know or refuses to know. Not to mention confusing to the average ever day person who has no real interest or time to study the historical facts in what is happening in the Middle East, be it politically or religiously sanctioned. What is happening in the Occupied Territories is not something that happened over night nor is it biblical as many assume incorrectly.