By Xinhua
Gaza : At a huge rally to celebrate Hamas’ 20-year-old birthday on Saturday, deposed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haneya said his movement doesn’t believe in a so-called fair solution of the Palestinian refugee issues, asserting they must return to their homes.
“No for making a concession on the right of return and there is nothing called a fair solution for return … there is only one thing called the return of millions of Palestinians from Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan,” Haneya told the rally in Gaza City.
Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters gathered in Gaza City to mark the Islamic movement’s 20-year-old birthday.
Haneya, also a senior Hamas leader, asserted that Hamas will keep on fighting against Israel, saying, “I tell those who want to strike the resistance that their illusive thinking won’t be usable.”
Meanwhile, Haneya affirmed that Hamas will not accept any condition set by President Mahmoud Abbas for dialogue with Abbas’ Fatah movement.
“In the name of all Palestine men, I swear that we will not accept any condition for the dialogue,” Haneya said. Right after Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, Abbas had not only fired the Hamas-led coalition government, also severed all contacts with Hamas. As a result, the national dialogue between rival Hamas and Fatah has since collapsed.
Abbas conditioned that any resumption of dialogue with Hamas has to be preceded by Hamas regret over taking over Gaza, and should bring the situation back to what it was before mid-June.
Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, was created in 1987by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of the Gaza wing of the Muslim Brotherhood at the beginning of the first Intifada, or uprising.
Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, and it is listed as a terrorist organization Israel, the U.S. and the EU.
On Saturday, people first gathered in front of many mosques in the Gaza Strip, which is home to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians.
Crowds then moved to the al-Kateeba square in northwest Gaza City, which had witnessed the death of seven supporters of Abbas’ Fatah movement last month in a clash with Hamas police during a large demonstration to mark the third anniversary of late President Yasser Arafat’s death.
Hamas supporters, including women and children, gathered under the motto of “the rally of victory from the heart of the siege,” referring to the Israeli siege of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Mushier al-Massri, a Hamas lawmaker, addressed the huge crowd at the beginning of the rally and said that hundreds of thousands were participating in the rally. “This number confirms that people still support Hamas despite the tight siege,” he said.
Flash polls in November indicated a decline in Hamas’ popularity following the crackdown on the peaceful rally to commemorate Arafat’s death.
Al-Massri said that Hamas “will stick to its stances as the hills and heights of Palestine and will keep the principles more than keep our sons.”
Hamas, he said, “has gained power by the will of the people under the conspiracy of the family members and the strangers to topple this project and silence the sound of resistance.”
Meanwhile, a Hamas leader said that his movement “extends its hand for dialogue with Fatah,” adding that this call doesn’t reflect a weakness from Hamas.
“We call for a real, unconditional dialogue that tackles all the issues and maintain the interests of the home, not the foreign agenda,” said Osama al-Muzini, a senior Hamas official.
In addition, an Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammed al-Hindi, who joined the rally, said his movement stands alongside with Hamas and other factions to face a possible Israeli invasion into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned the ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks at Israel may force the Israeli army to launch a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip.
Ashkenazi was quoted as saying that “we may come to a point where we will be forced to carry out a large-scale operation” as daily Israeli incursions into the coastal territory Gaza could not be decisive in curbing the attacks.
Al-Hindi also slammed the Palestinian negotiation team which started final-status talks with Israel as a result of last month’s U.S.-hosted peace conference in Annapolis.
“There are some people who continued the useless meetings with the Israelis while the Israeli rockets were killing our people in the Gaza Strip,” al-Hindi said.
On Dec. 12, negotiation teams from Israel and the Palestinian National Authority formally kicked off the first round of peace talks, which was aimed to reach a permanent deal by the end of2008.
Those so-called final-status issues included control over Jerusalem, the borders of the would-be Palestinian state, refugees, water and security.