Hamas will never recognise Israel, leader says at anniversary rally

Hamas will never recognise Israel, the Islamist movement's Gaza leader Ismail Haniya said Tuesday, at a rally to mark the 23rd anniversary of the organisation's founding, DPA reported.

"We say today that there will be no occupation of the land of Palestine and then we can say there is no future for the occupation on our land. I mean from the sea to the river and from Rafah up to Naqoora," Ismail Haniya told the crowd.

"Hamas will be the faithful guard of the Palestinian people's rights and the basic Palestinian principles. We say it with confidence as we said it five years ago when we formed our government, and we say it today: We will never recognize Israel," he continued.

The rally was attended by tens of thousands of Hamas supporters, and featured a scale model of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque under a huge slogan proclaiming that "We Remain Committed to the Covenant."

A poster at the rally featured photographs of Hamas leaders assassinated by Israel in the last 10 years.

Hundreds of youth and children , wearing off-white uniform and green caps, marched through Gaza City and Hamas officials handed out chocolates and candy with a card saying it came from "Hamas with love."

Hamas leaders and activists spent spent around two weeks preparing for the rally. Smaller gatherings were held all over the Gaza Strip Friday, while mosque loudspeakers urged residents to attend Tuesday's event.

"This year the rally is different from previous rallies. We want to send a message to the world and to the Zionist enemy that Hamas movement is a powerful Islamic Palestinian movement which can never be uprooted," a rally organizer, who gave his name as Abu Hamza, said.

Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin - who was assassinated by Israel in March 2004 - in Gaza in December 14, 1987, several days after the first Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, broke out against Israel.

Since then, Hamas has carried out thousands of attacks against Israel,including dozens of suicide attacks which have killed hundreds of Israelis and caused it to be designated a terrorist organization by many in the international community.

In 2006 the movement participated in the Palestinian legislative elections and emerged triumphant, defeating President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, which until then had been the natural party of Palestinian government.

The US and western countries placed Hams under a diplomatic boycott because of its refusal to renounce violence, honour past Israeli- Palestinian agreements, and recognise Israel's right to exist.

Fierce internecine fighting in June 2007, between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip, saw the Islamist movement rout security officials loyal to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority and seize control of the salient, and cause Gaza and the Fatah-run West Bank to be divided politically as well as geographically.

Attempts to reconcile the two movements have so far failed.

Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, believes that its conflict with Israel is not a conflict of borders, but one of "to be or not to be." It regards Israel as "part of a western colonial Zionist project" which aims at expelling the Palestinians from their lands.

"Our Jihad (Holy War) will continue until Jerusalem and Palestine are liberated," Hamas leader Mohammed al-Zahar said.

A Hamas communique distributed at the rally stressed that "armed resistance is a legal right for the Palestinian people and we will never abandon this legal right until all our land and all our holy sites are liberated. We will never recognize what is called Israel."

However, some Hamas leaders have said that while they will nto recognise Israel, they are prepared to accept a temporary solution based on establishing an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, with east Jerusalem as its capital and without settlements.