A top Hamas leader warned Israel on Friday that its troops would be "cut to pieces" if the army launched a widescale offensive on the Gaza Strip. "The occupiers should know that if they intend to enter the Gaza Strip they will leave cut into pieces," Mahmud Zahar told a rally in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to AFP, Zahar also said an international meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the United States is preparing to host later this month would fail. "Meet each other as often as you want but you won't get the homeland back or liberate the holy places. The autumn meeting does not frighten us," he said.
"The autumn leaves will fall but so will the yellow flags," added Zahar, alluding to the colour of Fatah party. Instead, he counselled Fatah in the occupied West Bank to "learn the lesson of what happened in Gaza."
