August 12 - Hamas Refuses to disarm

August 12, originally uploaded by anonimoh2005.

Top Hamas political leader Mahmoud al-Zahar Hamas attends a graduation ceremony in Gaza city August 12, 2005. Hamas militants said on Friday they would not disarm despite Israel's planned Gaza pullout so they could carry on pressing the Jewish state to withdraw from more occupied land. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Hamas refuses to disarm after Gaza pullout

Agence France-Presse

Gaza City, August 12,


Hamas will not surrender its weapons to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip after Israel's pullout from the territory, one of the Islamist movement's top leaders said on Friday.

"This army will continue to defend our homeland as long as one inch of Palestine remains occupied," Mahmud Zahar said, after attending a training session of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades.

During a keynote speech to the Palestinian parliament earlier this week, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas urged all militants to end their rocket attacks on Israeli targets as part of a larger appeal for calm during the pullout.

"It is criminal to claim that there is only one weapon," Zahar said, in reference to declarations by Abbas insisting that the Palestinian Authority was the only legitimate security tool.

Abbas met Zahar and Hamas's two other top Gaza leaders on Tuesday in a bid to ensure the group's militants would not seek to scupper the historic pullout of Israeli troops and settlers.

Hamas, the group behind the majority of anti-Israeli attacks during the five-year uprising, claims the rocket attacks were instrumental in persuading Israel to leave Gaza after a 38-year occupation.