Hamas chief warns Israel not to wage offensive on Gaza

Chief of Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Yehia Sinwar on Friday warned Israel not to wage any future military offensive on the enclave that his movement has been ruling since 2007, media reported.

Sinwar's warning was made during a popular eulogy for seven Hamas militants who were killed on November 11 in a gun battle with a special Israeli army undercover force in east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

The eulogy ceremony was held near the house of Noor Baraka, the top Hamas militant, who was among the seven killed in the gun battle, reports Xinhua news agency.

The ceremony was attended by the Egyptian security intelligence delegation.

"I advise the occupation (Israel) not to repeat the experience of sending a special military undercover force because next time we will clean the Israeli prisons," said Sinwar, referring to kidnapping soldiers and exchanging them for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In response to the killing of seven Hamas militants, Hamas armed wing and other Gaza-based militant groups fired barrages of rockets into Israel.

Israeli war planes fired back and destroyed around 80 buildings and constructions that belong to Hamas, including its television station and other security headquarters.

"It is the first time in the history of the Palestinian armed struggle that 13 Palestinian armed wings in the Gaza Strip worked together in one joint operation room," said Sinwar, referring to 400 rockets fired in two days into Israel.

Sinwar went on saying that the Israeli blockade that had been imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007 has to be ended, adding that "it will end by the peaceful marches of return, and if not, we have other means and methods to break it."

Sinwar said that he has sent a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and "his new defense minister" that "Gaza only prepares death for you and the rockets of resistance have become more in terms of numbers, accurate and destructive."

Meanwhile, Sinwar called on Fatah Party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, his movement's rival, and all other Palestinian factions to sit together at one table, end internal division and agree on unity and partnership.

Earlier on Friday, 23 Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers' gunfire during the weekly protests, known as "the Marches of Return and Breaking the Israeli Siege," in eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel.

--IANS

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