Security measures aimed at stopping Palestinian groups from rearming in Gaza will not stop the flow of weapons into the enclave, a senior Hamas official claimed today.
Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, said Palestinian fighters had begun to restore their arsenal after a ceasefire halted Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip.
"We will continue to get weapons into Gaza and the (West) Bank. Let nobody think we will surrender to measures," he said during a speech in Beirut.
"Perhaps matters will get more difficult, but we are ready to ride out any difficulty ... so that the resistance continues," he said. “Those who think sea, air or satellite monitoring can detect weapons flow through tunnels are deluded.”.
Israel has said Hamas used tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to bring weapons into the enclave, where its offensive killed 1,300 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,000 others.
Thirteen Israelis were killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire. Israel's stated aim was to stop Palestinian rocket fire into the south of the country.
Israel said it halted the fighting after securing commitments from the United States, European powers and Egypt to crack down on the flow of arms to the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Senior Israeli defence official Amos Gilad said his government was more concerned about regulating the items being smuggled into Gaza than destroying the tunnels themselves. "The tunnel is not the problem. It's what they are bringing through it," Gilad told Israel's Channel 2 television. "If the smugglers knew the cost of smuggling Iranian rockets is 20 years in an Egyptian prison, they would beware."
France said on Friday it would send a frigate to patrol international waters off the coast of the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to consolidate the ceasefire by preventing arms trafficking by sea.
"I reassure you that from the first day of the ceasefire the resistance began to restore what it had lost and to develop what it (already) had," Hamdan added.
Hamas has cemented its hold on the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million residents, casting doubt on assertions by Israeli leaders that the group has been severely weakened during the offensive. Schools and the few government ministries not destroyed in the bombing reopened yesterday.
Hamas has started distributing up to €4,000 in cash to families hard hit by Israel's attacks.
US president Barack Obama plans to dispatch his Middle East envoy to the region next week, in a quick start to the new administration's efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and shore up a shaky Gaza truce.
US, Arab and Israeli diplomats said the envoy, former senator George Mitchell, plans to meet leaders in Egypt, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan, but they ruled out direct contacts with Hamas. The trip is expected to last roughly a week and will likely include a stop in Saudi Arabia but not Syria, one diplomat said.
Israel's refusal to fully lift its blockade of Gaza has thrown into doubt the future of the ceasefire and post-war reconstruction.