Hamas Won’t Halt Efforts, Leader Says

The spiritual leader of Islamic militant group Hamas insisted Wednesday that his organization would not disarm, grant a cease-fire or participate in the government of the incoming Palestinian Authority prime minister.

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was wounded this month by an Israeli airstrike, said violence against the Jewish state would continue despite Israel’s campaign to hunt down and kill Hamas leaders and operatives.

“There are a lot of security measures taken by our enemy, but the most important thing is that we do not surrender and that the resistance continues,” Yassin said. “It’s not important whether our retaliation comes today, tomorrow, or after a week or a month.... The enemy will pay the price sooner or later.”

He dismissed another truce, similar to one declared by Hamas at the end of June but called off less than two months later, and denied contact between his group and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Korei, who has publicly called for a cease-fire. Korei reportedly has tried to persuade Hamas to join his nascent government, but Yassin ruled out such participation.

Yassin’s remarks came in an interview after a news conference Wednesday afternoon at a mosque, his first high-profile appearance since he narrowly survived an Israeli assassination attempt Sept. 6.

The location was chosen because Yassin’s security team believed that the presence of worshipers would deter an Israeli attack. None of the other senior Hamas leaders, nearly all of whom have gone underground, was present, and Yassin’s bodyguards moved the aging leader -- nearly blind and confined to a wheelchair -- to another part of the room once the news conference was over.

Yassin said negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were irrelevant to Hamas, which rejects Israel’s existence entirely.

“The resistance is not dependent on the political situation. The resistance is linked to the existence of the [Israeli] occupation,” he said. “As long as the settlements and the aggression exist ... then we cannot talk about anything but jihad and resistance.”

He acknowledged that Israel’s pursuit has forced many Hamas leaders to lower their profiles but said it would not stop assaults on Israeli targets.

The group’s most recent attacks were two suicide bombings in Israel that killed 15 people on Sept. 9, three days after the Israeli military dropped a bomb on a Gaza City building where Hamas leaders were meeting. Yassin sustained minor injuries.

Fourteen Hamas operatives and several bystanders have died in the last month as a result of what Israel calls “targeted killings” and what Palestinians condemn as illegal assassinations.

The latest casualty was Mohammed Akel, 22, a Hamas member who was killed today in a predawn raid by Israeli tanks and helicopters in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, witnesses and hospital officials said. In a similar operation this morning in the West Bank city of Hebron, two suspected members of militant group Islamic Jihad were slain, Israeli media reported.

Most of the Hamas agents killed in Gaza in the last month have died in airstrikes. In an unusual protest made public Wednesday, a group of 27 active and retired Israeli air force pilots signed an open letter this week stating their refusal to “carry out orders that are illegal and immoral, such as the ones Israel performs in the [Palestinian] territories.” The signatories declared that the occupation “has corrupted all of Israeli society.”

Although a small but increasing number of army recruits have refused to serve in the territories in recent months, the letter marked the first time pilots, who enjoy high regard in Israeli society, have declared their opposition to military operations.

Israeli officials said the pilots would be punished if they refused a mission.

Since the Sept. 9 suicide bombings, Israelis have enjoyed a rare two weeks of relative quiet, which the government attributes to its onslaught against Hamas and its threat to expel Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. However, authorities are on high alert for possible attacks during the Jewish High Holy Days, beginning with Rosh Hashana this weekend.

Israeli officials also have indicated that they are on the verge of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim militant group in Lebanon.

Speculation concerning such an exchange has proliferated since Israel returned two bodies of Hezbollah fighters to Lebanon on Aug. 25. In recent days, leaders on both sides have said they are nearing a deal, which probably would include the release of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was kidnapped nearly three years ago, and two senior Hezbollah figures, Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, who were kidnapped by Israeli commandos in 1989 and 1994, respectively.

The bargain is also expected to include the release of some Palestinian prisoners.

But Israeli officials said that no Palestinians involved in terror attacks would be freed. Specifically, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out suggestions that among those released would be Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader and potential successor to Arafat who is on trial on charges of orchestrating terrorist attacks.

“Barghouti cannot be a condition for this deal,” Sharon said in an interview with the newspaper Maariv. “Barghouti is responsible for acts of murder, and he is going to prison.”

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Staff writer Chu reported from Jerusalem and special correspondent Abu Shammalah from Gaza City.