HAMAS REJECTS 'COEXISTENCE WITH ISRAEL'

Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Meshaal: “I do not coexist with the occupiers. We fight the occupiers.” (Photo: Press TV) — **Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Meshaal: “I do not coexist with the occupiers. We fight the occupiers.”** (Photo: Press TV)

Gaza City, 1 Syawwal 1435/28 July 2014 (MINA) – Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Meshaal has demanded Israel lift its blockade of Gaza, warning that “Palestinians cannot coexist with the occupiers.”

“I do not coexist with the occupiers,” Meshaal said in an interview broadcast on Sunday, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Monday.

He added that the Palestinians are not fighting Israelis because they are “Jews,” saying, “We are not actually fighting the Jews because they are Jews per se. We do not fight any other races. We fight the occupiers.”

Israel unleashed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on July 8. Over the past 20 days, Israeli warplanes have been hitting numerous sites in the besieged Gaza Strip, demolishing houses and burying families in the rubble.

Israel also began a ground offensive against the impoverished enclave on July 17.

The Palestinian death toll from 20 days of aerial and ground assaults on Gaza now stands at 1,062, with more than 6,000 people injured.

The Tel Aviv regime confirms that 43 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza war. However, Al-Qassam Brigades, which is the military wing of Hamas, says Palestinian resistance fighters have killed at least 90 Israeli soldiers.

Gaza has been blockaded by the Israeli regime since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)