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Hamas
threatened new operations against the Israelis, including Sharon
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GAZA
CITY, June 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The military wing
of the Palestinian Islamic resistance group Hamas warned foreigners
Thursday, June 12, to leave Israel for their own safety while declaring
for the first time that "the head" of Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon was now targeted and threatening new operations against the
Israelis.
In
a statement received by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Al-Jazeera, the
Ezzudin al-Qassam Brigades advised foreigners to "leave the Zionist
entity to ensure their security since we will strike everywhere."
"We
call on international citizens to leave the Zionist entity immediately
to preserve their lives," read the statement.
Hamas
sources said the group was holding to its policy of not deliberately
attacking foreigners, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper said.
It
added that the bombing
of a commuter bus in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) Wednesday, June 11, by
one of its members that left 16 other people dead and up to 100 others
injured was "only the beginning of a new series of reprisals
against the Zionists who occupy our country."
"The
Al-Qassam cells are called upon to act rapidly to transform the Zionist
entity into blood and ruins," it said.
It
said the failed attempted assassination
Tuesday, June 10, of top Hamas political leader, Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi,
the most senior figure in the group to have been targeted since the
September 2000 start of the Intifada, was a "cowardly operation
conducted by the enemy government which believed the summits in Sharm
El-Sheikh and Aqaba
assured it a cover."
Amid
the tit-for-tat attacks this week which have killed almost 50 people on
both sides, the Israeli army has been ordered to "completely
wipe out" Hamas.
In
the latest bloodshed, at least six Palestinians were killed, including a
Hamas cadre, his wife and three-year-old daughter, when several Israeli
helicopter gun ships fired late Thursday, June 12, missiles at a car in
northern Gaza City.
