Mashaal seeks alliance vs Israel-U.S.

Tweet

HAMAS political leader Khaled Mashaal on Monday called for an Arab and Muslim alliance to defeat the United States and Israel. “Our battle is with two sides, one of them is the strongest power in the world, the United States, and the second is the strongest power in the region (Israel),” he told hundreds of people at the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus. Mashaal, who survived a 1997 Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan, vowed Hamas would avenge the killing of Rantissi and the group’s spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on March 22. Palestinians fired a barrage of homemade rockets and mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements and towns inside Israel in retaliation. Israeli soldiers raided the area in Gaza where some of the rockets originated and shot and killed a Palestinian teenager who was climbing on an army vehicle, according to the military and witnesses. Over two days, 15 Qassam rockets hit Israeli targets, damaging at least five structures, the army said. It was one of the most intense rocket barrages in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Later Tuesday, Israeli tanks and a bulldozer raided an area near Nissanit. Dozens of Palestinians threw stones and began climbing on the tanks, and the troops responded with gun fire, according to witnesses and the army. In the West Bank, the Israeli military raided the town of Silwad, where overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was born. About 70 people were arrested, Palestinian security sources said. Mashaal lives in Damascus, Syria.