Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Friday he would quit as Palestinian prime minister if that would persuade the West to lift debilitating economic sanctions.
"When the issue of the siege is on one side, and my being prime minister is on the other, let the siege be lifted to end the suffering of the Palestinian people," he said.
Haniyeh told worshippers at a Gaza mosque that Western nations wanted him out of government.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Israel's artillery barrage in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun climbed to 19 on Friday after Israeli hospital officials confirmed that one of the injured transferred to Israel, Bassem Kafarna, had died in Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital, the AP reported. The shells landed Wednesday as residents were sleeping.
