Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said on Saturday it would fight to drive Israel out of the West Bank and Jerusalem after the Jewish state completes its withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip this year. "Gaza is not Palestine," a masked spokesman for Hamas's armed wing told a news conference in Gaza City.
"As for Jerusalem and the West Bank, we will seek to liberate them by resistance just as the Gaza Strip was liberated," said the spokesman, surrounded by gunmen and militants with rocket launchers.
He did not explicitly say Hamas, committed to destroying Israel, planned to abandon a truce at the end of 2005. "Our arms removed the Zionist enemy and therefore we will not abandon our weapons and we will not hand the over to anybody," said the Hamas spokesman. He said the issue "was not up for discussion". At the same time, Hamas said it had no intention of clashing with Palestinian security forces.