Islamic Jihad says all Palestinians united

In a news conference in Damascus, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad today boasted all Palestinian groups remain united in the goal of annihilating the Jewish state of Israel.

With Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia looking on, Ramazan Abdullah, secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian movements have reached agreement on a joint strategy after Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip.

"This war would continue till full liberation of Palestine, restoration of the denied rights of the whole Palestinian nation and briefly speaking uprooting of the usurper Israeli regime," he said, according to a translation by the official Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency.

There would be no disputes between the groups, he asserted because "all Palestinian groups share the mutual concern of securing Palestinians national solidarity, favor restoration of social order and full establishment of Palestinian government organizations, they have all agreed on the need to move toward those objectives solidly and harmoniously."

Though the Palestinian Authority has agreed to disarm terrorists within its territory, Abdullah said there is no dispute about arms between the various groups.

"The issue of weapons at the disposal of resistance movement groups on one hand, and the Palestinian Authority on the other hand has neither been a matter of dispute in the past, nor would it ever be so in the future," he said. "Efforts made by [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and other Israeli officials are focused on highlighting the differences of opinion and disputes among the resistance movements on the one hand, and between them and the PA on the other, so that they could at best ignite the flames of a civil war among Palestinians. The Palestinians are alert and will not fall prey to the plots hatched by their enemies, nor would they ever begin fratricide, as the Zionists desire."

Abdullah made clear there will be no relaxing of hostilities with Israel as a result of the pullback from Gaza.

"[The] Gaza Strip that is being evacuated after thirty-eight years of occupation is only some 1.5 percent of the historic motherland of the Palestinians, and therefore its evacuation cannot mean the end of the liberation campaign," he said.

Abdullah said the evacuation of the Gaza Strip by Israel did not occur because of negotiations, but rather because of armed struggle.

"Let us not forget we have never succeeded in restoration of any of our denied rights from Tel Aviv relying on negotiations and that it has definitely been the restless resistance of the Palestinians, like that of the Lebanese, that has urged the Zionists to retreat from Gaza Strip and Lebanon," said. "We would therefore, also liberate the rest of the occupied Palestine, particularly the dear occupied Holy Qods, [Jerusalem] by keeping alive our nation's resistance movement."

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