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MID: Top Hamas leader vows 'victory' against Israel


05 Jan 2009 10:20 PM

GAZA CITY, Jan 5 AFP - Mahmud Zahar, a top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, on Monday vowed that the Islamists were heading to "victory" against Israel.

"Victory is coming, God willing," Zahar said in a television address broadcast on Hamas's Al-Aqsa television, his first since the start of Israel's massive offensive against Hamas on December 27.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, "has given the most beautiful performances during its confrontation with the army that the world thought invincible," he said.

"We will defeat it, God willing."

"The painful tests of today will help us realise our national aspirations of tomorrow," he said, adding that Hamas was not renouncing its aim to "free all of Palestine."

"With this aggression, the enemy is condemning itself and giving the world reasons to eliminate the temporary entity in Palestine."

"They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine. They have legitimised the destruction of their synagogues and their schools by hitting our mosques and our schools."