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Hamas Claims Jerusalem Operation, PA Condemns It
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| Al-Rantisi:
The only way is resistance.
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With
Additional Reporting By IOL Palestine Office
JENIN,
June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Islamic
Resistance Movement Hamas claimed responsibility for Tuesday's bus
blast which killed 20 in occupied Jerusalem.
An
unidentified person called Agence France-Presse (AFP) and said
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, carried out the
operation that left at least 19 dead plus the bomber and nearly 50
wounded.
The
same caller later identified the suicide bomber as Mohammed al-Ghul,
23, originally from the northern West Bank refugee camp of Al-Faraa,
between Nablus and Jenin.
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected the creation of a Palestinian
state on visiting the scene, shouting: “What Palestinian state can
you talk about?"
Meanwhile,
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo condemned Tuesday's
resistance attack in Jerusalem, saying it would only give Israel
further reason to "escalate its aggression" against the
Palestinians.
"The
Palestinian Authority condemns this attack," Abed Rabbo told AFP.
"The
only beneficiary of this operation is Sharon and the occupation.
Israel will use this operation to escalate its aggression against the
Palestinian Authority," he said.
"This
operation will only help Sharon's steps, especially in building this
wall along the West Bank," he added.
The
blast came a day after Walid Sbeih, a member of the Palestinian
preventative security forces and who also belonged to the Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat’s Fatah movement, was gunned down by Israeli troops near
Bethlehem.
Palestinian
chief negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of carrying out another
assassination in line with its policy of liquidating Palestinian
resistance figures – a policy that started with the now 21-month-old
Intifada against Israeli occupation.
Speaking
to IslamOnline, Abdelaziz al-Rantisi, a Hamas leader, said that the
latest martyr operation came at the right time, especially as the
occupation army escalates its terrorist acts against the Palestinian
people, including murders, assassinations, incursions and destruction
of Palestinian cities and villages.
He
added that Hamas, Jihad, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP) and all other Palestinian movements are now
engaged in resistance operations against Israeli occupation.
“The
Palestinian people now realize that their only way is resistance, not
the security council nor the U.S.,” Al-Rantisi said.
Answering
a question on whether this operation is a message to U.S. President
George W. Bush prior to the speech when he declares the American
viewpoint on announcing a Palestinian state, Al-Rantisi said: “Why
don’t we say that the assassination which took place on Monday
(Sbeih’s) was a message to Bush? Why don’t we say that the
incursions are a message to Bush and why don’t we say that what
happened today is a form of resisting the occupation.”
Al-Rantisi
added that the Palestinian Authority will not do any action that makes
it in conflict with the Palestinian people, especially as it sees the
daily incursions and massacres against them.
“The
Palestinian Authority will not confront the Palestinian people who
have chosen the path of resistance to combat the occupation,” he
said.
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