Saturday, January 5, 2008

Barhoum: IOF onslaught on Nablus vengeful; blessed by Fayyad's government


"NABLUS, (PIC)-- Hamas Movement has affirmed on Saturday that the IOF troops incursions into Nablus city and the havoc they wreaked on the city for the past three days was sanctioned by the Fayyad government to punish the city's inhabitants for supporting the Palestinian resistance.

"We confirm that those criminal IOF operations in Nablus city were carried out on request of [Salam] Fayyad who publicly allied himself with the Israelis and the US administration against his own Palestinian people without a sense of shame on his part in order to protect his narrow personal ambitions and interests", underlined Fawzi Barhoum, the spokesman of Hamas Movement in Gaza Strip, in a press statement he made Saturday.

He also added that a broad trend within Fatah faction was supporting the dismissal of the "Zionist" Fayyad government, describing the presence of this "illegitimate" government as dangerous to the Palestinian national project and greatly contributes in deepening inter-Palestinian political rift further.

According to Barhoum, the visits made by Israeli war minister Ehud Barak, IOF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, and US security coordinator in the PA Keith Dayton to the city to check the performance of Fayyad's government against the Palestinian resistance had paved the way for the "vicious" IOF military campaign against the city.

In this context, Barhoum highlighted that Hamas will remain firm on the path of the legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation, and that it will reject all deals and agreements of surrender that "defamed the Palestinian history and struggle", and denied the Palestinian people their legal rights, urging the Palestinian people to rally behind the resistance option.

Heavy losses in three days:
The three-day IOF atrocities in the city inflicted heavy material losses estimated at approximately 10 million dollars, in addition to wounding around 80 Palestinian citizens and arresting scores others.

"The IOF aggressions against the city, if they persisted, could lead to disastrous economic catastrophes and could produce destructive economic burden on the city and on the governorate as well", said Shaher Sa'ad, the secretary general of the general union of the Palestinian workers.

He also accused Israel of attempting to coerce Palestinian citizens dwelling in the city's old quarters out of it by means of destroying and ransacking their homes and shops."

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