Hamas leader: Israeli atrocities can trigger 'regional war'

The head of the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas' Political Bureau has sounded a stern warning concerning continuation of the Israeli regime's atrocities against the Gaza Strip.

Ismail Haniyeh made the remarks in a televised speech on Thursday, the 13th day of an all-out Israeli war against the coastal territory that has so far claimed at least 3,859 lives.

"Continuation of the enemy's atrocities against the people of Gaza will upset all equations in Palestine and the region," he said.

"What is happening in Gaza will lead to a regional war, which the enemy and its supporters will be unable to control," Haniyeh added.

Addressing the sheer extent of the Israeli aggression -- which has seen the Zionist enemy leveling entire districts and deploying banned white phosphorus munitions against Gaza -- Haniyeh said the crimes "once again proved the Nazi nature" of the occupying regime.

The Hamas' official pointed to the regime's earlier massacre of at least 12 people during attacks against a Palestinian refugee camp in the city of Tulkarm in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The goal sought by the regime's aggression is to uproot the people of Gaza and the West Bank, and resettle them respectively in Egypt and Jordan.

"The Palestinian nation," he, however, added, "is committed to its land and will never accept either resettlement or an alternative homeland."

Haniyeh expressed gratitude towards Muslim and Arab countries, especially Egypt, for their opposition to the resettlement scheme.

He described the only means of resolution of the current situation as cessation of the Israeli occupation, saying, "We announced this to all that these atrocities should be condemned, and the murderers and the criminals should be tried and punished at international courts."

The Hamas' leader, meanwhile, pointed to American and European officials' recent trips to the Occupied Territories, saying the visits seek to bolster the "cowardly Zionist army and the disintegrated Israeli society" following the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation.

The Israeli war came after Hamas and its fellow Gaza-based resistance movement of the Islamic Jihad launched the operation against the regime in response to its campaign of aggression, violation, and bloodshed against Palestinians.

ME