Hamas warns of Intifada

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas threatened to launch a new uprising against Israel on Saturday when hundreds of thousands of Islamist supporters rallied in Gaza City to mark the group's 20th anniversary.

"Our people are capable of launching a third and a fourth intifada until the dawn of victory rises up," said Khaled Meshaal, the group's exiled leader, in a speech recorded on Friday at his base in Damascus.

The central square in Gaza City was awash with green flags and dozens of armed, masked men from the group's military wing patrolled in a crowd estimated at between 300,000 and 500,000.

Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said the movement was growing more popular because of its stance against the United States and Israel.

"Today is the day of Jihad, resistance and uprising," Haniyeh said.

"Those who remain committed to the constant rights of their people, those who make an enemy of America and the Zionist occupation (Israel) gain popularity. This is Hamas."

Founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by Israel in a 2004 air strike, the group has a charter that calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Tensions are high between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction which the Islamist group routed from Gaza in a civil war in June.

The rally was held at the spot where seven Fatah supporters were killed by gunfire last month while commemorating the third anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Hamas said Abbas ordered a ban on similar pro-Hamas rallies in the West Bank where the Palestinian President's Fatah movement holds sway.

Meshaal said Abbas, whose administration is backed by the West, lacked the support of the Palestinian people.

"Whoever thinks his legitimacy comes from the international backing is under an illusion, the legitimacy is the people," Meshaal said.

Israel's Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said on Saturday that Hamas had got "significantly stronger" since Israel pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005, and "the only thing stopping Hamas (from taking over the West Bank) is Israel, not the Palestinian Authority."

Alluding to last month's Israeli-Palestinian talks in Annapolis, Maryland, Haniyeh said conferences "will achieve nothing".

"We will never cede our land ... The choice of resistance and Jihad is the shortest way to liberate Palestine and return Jerusalem," Haniyeh said.