Hamas Vows Renewed Violence Against Israel

Organizers of a mass rally for the Islamic group Hamas on Friday made certain no one would miss the point: “We worship God by killing the Jew,” read a sign in English, posted a few feet from the speakers’ lectern.

Hamas, the militant organization that claimed responsibility for a string of deadly suicide bombings in Israel earlier this year, drew thousands to a muddy soccer field here to shout allegiance to the group and its history of bloody attacks against Israel.

On Friday, the group vowed to renew that violence.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who clamped down on Hamas after the suicide bombings and imprisoned hundreds of activists, gave his blessing to Friday’s gathering, a move certain to further unsettle the nerves of jittery Israelis.

Dozens of Arafat’s police stood guard on nearby streets and rooftops and occasionally applauded the speakers.

In a sign of the newfound accommodation between Arafat and Hamas, which had castigated the Palestinian leader for making peace with Israel, Arafat’s picture hung alongside those of slain Hamas fighters.

But as the rally began, organizers were forced to intervene to stop a group of young men from tearing it down.

Earlier, Hamas’ military wing announced that it would mark the ninth year since its founding--and the first since the assassination of one of its key leaders--by carrying out new attacks against Israel.

In a statement faxed to news organizations, the faction promised that its retaliation for the death in January of master bomb maker Yehiya Ayash would be “strong” and “very painful.”

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Surveys have shown that support for Hamas in the Palestinian community dropped after the suicide bombings that killed more than 60 people in February and March, in part because the attacks prompted Israeli authorities to close off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, cutting laborers off from their jobs and creating severe economic hardship.

The attendance Friday proved that “Hamas is alive and will never die,” Hamas leader Isman Haniyeh told the crowd, speaking from a stage draped with murals depicting fierce-looking, heavily armed Palestinian fighters and gilt-framed photos of those slain in the struggle. One particularly graphic drawing showed a masked Hamas figure knifing an Israeli soldier he held around the throat.

But the speakers for the most part were lackluster, and many in the audience appeared to have come as much for the festival-like atmosphere as for any religious or political fervor. Vendors hawked sunflower seeds, cigarette lighters and sweets, while children chased each other through the crowd.

The Hamas movement’s youth wing, gangly boys dressed in khaki uniforms and red berets, marched awkwardly in formation, bearing bunches of balloons attached to photographs of slain fighters. One by one, they sent the pictures aloft, where the winds would carry them to Jerusalem, one speaker said.

To one side of the crowd, in a fenced-off section reserved for women, Halima Salim, 38, said the large rally showed the strength of the Hamas movement and that Palestinians would “fight until we are totally liberated.”

Salim, who said she still carried the keys to her family’s former home in Ashdod, inside Israel, said Palestinians will not be satisfied with a peace agreement that cedes them only Gaza and Jericho.

“We want Jerusalem and all our land,” she said, seated among several of her eight children.

Toward the back, Akram Sataray, 20, proudly said his friends called him Abu Islam, or Father of Islam.

His dream, he said, was to go to heaven by killing Israelis. There were many ways to reach his goal, he said, his voice tense and excited.

“If I can explode myself or if I can use a knife to kill an Israeli and they kill me--there are many ways to be a martyr,” he said. “So expect in the near future many attacks against Israelis.”