The Islamic resistance movement Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon today of planning to form a war government and vowed to crush it with the gun.
"Sharon is planning to form a government of war and massacres against our nation," Khaled Meshal, head of the Hamas politburo, said in a speech to a rally at the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp, 15 km south of Damascus.
"But we say to Sharon and the Zionists, don't be happy because the gun of our Mujahedeen and the stones of our children will crush you...You will have no other choice but death," Mr Meshal said.
Hamas, which has a strong presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has claimed several attacks on Israeli targets in which scores of people were killed or wounded.
It is also taking a leading role in the anti-Israeli uprising which flared last September 28 following a visit by Sharon to an ultra sensitive site in Jerusalem sacred to Muslims and Jews. Almost 400 people have died in the violence - more than 300 Palestinians, 61 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs.
Mr Meshal's speech was were greeted with applause by the Palestinians in the camp who shouted: With our souls and blood we redeem thee, Palestine. Mr Meshal said outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who lost a leadership election to Sharon by a landslide last week, was forced to resign and leave office because of the heroic Palestinian uprising, and Mr Sharon will follow suit.