Hamas leader declares ‘intifada’ in the West Bank

Ismail Haniyeh says Gaza is prepared for ‘confrontation,’ violence ‘the only path to liberation’

Palestinian Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, gives a speech during a rally in Gaza City, Aug. 27, 2014. (AP/Khalil Hamra)
Palestinian Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, gives a speech during a rally in Gaza City, Aug. 27, 2014. (AP/Khalil Hamra)

Hamas’s chief in Gaza on Friday called violence that has hit Israel and the West Bank in recent days an “intifada” and urged further unrest.

“We are calling for the strengthening and increasing of the intifada… It is the only path that will lead to liberation,” Ismail Haniyeh said during a sermon for weekly Muslim prayers at a mosque in Gaza City.

“Gaza will fulfill its role in the Jerusalem intifada and it is more than ready for confrontation,” he added.

The Islamic terror movement Hamas rules Gaza, the Palestinian enclave squeezed between Egypt and Israel and separated from the West Bank.

Gaza has been the site of three wars with Israel since 2008, but it has remained mainly calm amid the recent unrest in Israel and the West Bank.

However, a march of about 300 people on Friday near the border with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip saw youths throw stones toward Israeli soldiers on the other side of the frontier, who responded and caused two injuries, Gazan rescue services said. Other reports put that number at five wounded, with some reports saying a Palestinian had been killed.

A rash of stabbing attacks in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel itself, along with rioting, have raised fears of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

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