Hamas has warned that if the new Israeli government did not start peace talks and end the occupation of Palestinian lands it would revert to "armed resistance" to the occupation of the West Bank.
Mahmoud Ramahi, Hamas' spokesman in the Palestinian parliament, was quoted as saying by the Thursday's edition of the the Guardian that Palestinians had the right to renew attacks within the West Bank if the occupation continued, although he ruled out a renewal of suicide attacks within Israel. Such attacks were part of a policy of retaliation for the killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army, a policy which had now ended, he noted.
Meanwhile, the new Hamas-led government said on Thursday it regretted Canada's decision to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority after Ottawa became the first donor to declare a freeze in funding.
"We regret this decision. We consider that it has been taken in haste and contrary to the democratic norms and the principles of human rights which are the basis for relations between states," new information minister Yussef Rizqa commented.
"The Canadian government would have been better off meeting with the government that Hamas has formed to discuss and study its programme and listen to its point of view," he added.
