Meshaal defends Hamas rocket attacks

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Saturday defended the firing of rockets into Israel, saying the Palestinians had a right to defend themselves and respond to what he said were Israel's ceasefire violations.

"This is the right of Palestine; it has the right to defend itself, and there were nine martyrs in one day and violations that must be responded to," Meshaal told reporters after talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

On Tuesday, Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets into southern Israel, the first since a ceasefire was agreed in November, after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in raids against militants in the occupied West Bank.

Meshaal, who held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on Friday, criticized Arab countries for being slow to live up to financial commitments made to the Palestinians in past Arab summits, and said the Palestinian government had received very little money from Arab states.

Western powers imposed crippling sanctions on the Palestinian Authority after the Islamist Hamas came to power in a January 2006 election.

"The reality on the ground in Palestine is the continuation of the embargo on the Palestinian people ... and Arab steps to lift the embargo are very slow," Meshaal said.

He called on Moussa to be directly involved in following up on financial pledges made by Arab states and said that if the Arabs broke the blockade, European countries would follow suit.

Moussa said the League was working on the issue. "We will not allow the Palestinian people to be starved," he said.

Meshaal also said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was personally responsible for the delay in a touted prisoner exchange that could see hundred of Palestinian prisoners exchanged for an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in June.