Hamas supporters rally in Gaza ahead of anniversary

by Fares Akram, Emad Drimly

GAZA, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Supporters of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, rallied in several parts of the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip Friday in preparation for the movement's 22nd anniversary.

Hundreds of militants mingled among thousands of Hamas supporters who toured the cities in cars and on motorbikes three days before the anniversary.

"Hamas became a regional movement in the region," said Abdel Rahman al-Jamal, a Hamas lawmaker, during a rally in central Gaza Strip where the demonstrators burnt two coffins wrapped with Israeli and U.S. flags.

During a rally in al-Nusseirat refugee camp, masked militants waved green flags with Islamic phrases reading "no god but Allah," the motto Hamas adopts. Other militants held posters of Hamas' political and militant commanders killed in Israeli attacks over the current decade.

In another show, groups of people passed through the crowds wearing white robes in reference to suicide bombers who carried out a series of deadly attacks in Israel, mostly between 1995 and 2006.

In another message indicating that the Islamic movement may heavily resume rocket-fire on Israeli communities near Gaza, painters drew a graffito showing a home-made rocket directed at Tel Aviv, the key Israeli city that Hamas rockets had never reached.

Hamas reduced the rocket attacks when it seized control of Gaza in June 2007 after it routed security forces loyal to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. But after Israel ended a major three-week offensive in Gaza last January, the Islamic movement has completely halted rocket attacks.

Last month, Israeli intelligence officers said Hamas was testing longer-range rockets that could hit deeper inside Israel.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has been confined to the West Bank since 2007, accusing Hamas of working to set up an Islamic emirate in the impoverished enclave where 1.5 million people live.

During the rallies, Hamas leaders urged their supporters to join the festival that would be staged on Monday to mark the movement's anniversary, promising them of a "surprise" during the event.

Observers believe Hamas' surprise is related to a possible prisoner exchange deal between the Islamic movement and Israel to free a captive soldier for hundreds of Arab and Palestinian inmates.

Vagueness covers the indirect talks that Germany and Egypt mediate to swap the prisoners. In October, Hamas released a video tape as the first evidence about the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit's condition since his capture in 2006.

Hamas bets to gather as many people as possible in its anniversary festival to challenge accusations that its popularity had decreased in the wake of the Israeli military operation that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians last winter.

Hamas has also played down calls to postpone the festival as influenza A/H1N1 reached Gaza Sunday and has killed seven so far.