Haniyeh vows 'resistance' despite Gaza seige

Gaza, June 25: Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government sacked by President Mahmoud Abbas, dismissed Israel's decision today to release Palestinian tax funds as bribery and said ''resistance'' was the only way forward.

Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, accused the United States of providing Abbas's Fatah forces with money and arms in order to ''oust Hamas or push it to make political concessions'', suggesting Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip earlier this month was defensive.

''The arms and money (for Fatah) showed that things were going towards a pre-planned explosion,'' Haniyeh said in his first major speech since Hamas routed Abbas's forces in Gaza and seized control of the coastal territory.

Abbas sacked Haniyeh's government in response and immediately appointed an emergency administration in the occupied West Bank.

Fatah accuses Hamas of accepting arms and money from Iran and of plotting to overthrow Abbas.

The United States and Israel want to isolate Hamas economically, diplomatically and militarily in its Gaza stronghold, while allowing funds and goods to flow to Abbas's emergency government.

Israel agreed today to transfer several hundred million dollars to Abbas's government, a measure designed to undercut Hamas Islamists controlling Gaza.

The money, some of the Palestinian tax revenues withheld by Israel since Hamas won election in 2006, is part of an initial package of benefits to bolster Abbas that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is likely to announce at a summit in Egypt tomorrow.

Haniyeh called Israel's release of the tax money ''financial bribery'' and ''political blackmail'' aimed at ''deepening the crisis and divisions'' between Fatah and Hamas.

''It is our right and our money,'' Haniyeh said. ''But this money ... should reach all the Palestinian people.'' ''America will not give us anything. The occupation (Israel) will not give us anything. Our rights and lands will only return to us by steadfastness and resistance,'' Haniyeh said.

Reuters

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