Official: Hamas Building Missiles
A top Hamas leader confirms his group is building missiles with a six-mile range, which would enable the Palestinian militants in the West Bank to hit Israeli neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
Moussa Abu Marzook makes the confirmation in an interview with Steve Kroft be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday at 7 p.m.
Marzook answered, “Yes, true,” to Kroft’s questions about whether Hamas was working on missiles with six-mile ranges and then he elaborated on his intention to use them.
“We want to resist the occupation with these missiles,” he told Kroft.. Israelis are entering houses with tanks to destroy and kill people. Seventy-three houses were destroyed and people couldn’t resist. Are weapons only allowed for Israel and not the Palestinians?”
Asked whether PLO leader Yasir Arafat had the power to stop his organization from committing violence against Israel, Marzook replies that the Palestinian leader speaks “in the name of Palestinians, but not in the name of all Palestinians.”
He adds, “I can assure you that Hamas now has a majority of the Palestinian people. Israel knows that it tried several times to stop Hamas, but it did not succeed. How do you expect Yasir Arafat to put an end to Hamas? If Arafat put an end to Hamas, who is he going to rule?”
Hamas has been behind many of the terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens and
soldiers over the years and has been especially active in the latest Palestinian-Israeli violence. Car bombs and suicide bombings that Hamas has taken credit for killed 25 and wounded over 200 in just one weekend last month.
Marzook was quick to distance his organization from al Qaida, the terrorist association headed by Osama bin Laden. Marzook condemned the terror attacks of Sept. 11 and pointed out the difference between bin Laden’s group and his own.
“Hamas has a very clear cut objective, to fight against the [Israeli] occupation. It has also limited its geographic role to Palestine. It is a movement of resistance,” he says.
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