Fatah’s armed wing threatens to extend operations outside the Palestinian territories.

Thursday May 03, 2007 15:52

by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

Fatah’s aL-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, threatened on Thursday to carry out resistance attacks outside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, unless the internationally-imposed economic embargo is lifted.

illustration photo

In a statement sent to reporters, the brigades held the Israeli occupation and the United States responsible for the financial and political boycott of the Hamas-led coalition government.

“We will not simply keep idle toward those who are imposing the siege”, the statement reads.

According to the statement, the armed group urged the Arab countries to help the Palestinian people get rid of the ongoing economic sanctions.

Earlier today, Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, hinted the possibility that his Hamas-Fatah coalition government may be dissolved if the economic boycott goes on.

Fatah, of President Mahmoud Abbas, jointly with Hamas and other Palestinian parties, make up the current coalition on basis of respect of signed peace agreements and commitment to resisting the Israeli occupation.

In the meantime, Gaza resistance groups resumed, earlier in the day, firing homemade shells into nearby Israeli targets, leaving no causalities.

The Salah-eldin Brigades, an offshoot of the Palestinian Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility for firing 100-mm homemade mortars and two homemade shells, in what it called ‘a response to the continued Israeli attacks on the West Bank’.

An already fragile 6-month-old ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, has been threatened recently, as Israeli air forces raided targets in Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian, and soldiers killed 8 others in the West Bank.

Last week, Israeli military officials voiced willingness to carry out a ground offensive.

Despite the installation in March of a national unity government, the international community still officially boycotts this government, mainly its Hamas members, while it continues to impose a crippling economic embargo on the Palestinian people.

Since January 2006, the Quartet for peace in the Middle East (United States, United Nations, European Union, Russia) demand the Hamas-led government to formally recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past signed agreements with Israel as preconditions for lifting the embargo.