Hamas not to hold direct talks with Israel

Deputy chief of the Islamic Hamas movement in Gaza, Ismail Haneya, said Saturday that his movement is not intending to hold direct talks with Israel.

"Hamas won't hold direct talks with Israel," Haneya said in a meeting with Palestinian reporters in Gaza.

Haneya was reacting to an earlier statement made by senior Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzooq, who said in an interview with a pro-Hamas television channel that if Hamas found itself obliged to directly talk to Israel, "it will do", Xinhua reported.

Abu Marzooq also said that the talks with Israel "are not taboo."

Meanwhile, Haneya said that Hamas could never compromise on exchanging the principle of reconstructing the Gaza Strip with disarming the Gaza-based militant groups, mainly the Hamas movement's armed wing.

"The Palestinian resistance arms are red line and will never be confiscated until the establishment of the Palestinian state," Haneya told reporters, adding that reconstructing the Gaza Strip was a legal right of the Palestinian people.

The senior Hamas leader urged Egypt, which brokered a ceasefire deal with Israel Aug 26 that ended a 50-day Israel offensive on Gaza, urged Egypt to keep following up on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

According to the deal, both Israel and the Palestinians were scheduled to get back to Cairo after one month of reaching the agreement of ceasefire to discuss other issues.

Haneya also called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hurry up in signing the Rome Convention that enables the Palestinians to sue Israel at the international anti-crime courts.