Hamas said on Friday it was breaking off negotiations with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on ending its attacks on Israelis.
"The dialogue has ended," Dr. Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi, a senior Hamas official told Reuters, adding Abbas made unacceptable commitments at a U.S.-led summit with Israel in Jordan on Wednesday.
Rantisi was quoted as saying Islamic and nationalist resistance groups would keep up the fighting until the Palestinian people regained its freedom and independence.
“We are people under foreign military occupation, we must regain our freedom, independence and dignity. This goal of ours will not be achieved through political parties in Sharm el-Sheikh or Aqaba nor by clarion speeches by political leaders.”
Rantisi castigated those who brand the Palestinian struggle as “terror.” “We can’t be terrorists, we are victims of Jewish terror. It is Jewish Nazism and terror that breed Palestinian struggle, not the other way around.”
Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said Hamas was ending dialogue since Abbas ignored at the summit key issues like the right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel and the future of Jerusalem. "This is our choice and we have no alternative.
(Armed) resistance will continue," Yassin said.
"Abu Mazen has stopped the dialogue when he committed himself to some issues not accepted by Hamas and will never be accepted by the Palestinian people," Rantisi said.
Meanwhile, operatives from the Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed
wing of Fatah party, issued a statement conditioning a ceace-fire agreement (hudna) on Israel to lifting the siege on Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, a halt to assassinations and the release of Palestinian prisoners, it was reported Friday.
the statment also demanded that Israel stop pursuing senior Palestinian activists, including former PA intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi.
