Hamas leader vows attacks will continue

The leader of Hamas told 30,000 supporters today that the Islamic militant group will keep carrying out bombings and shootings in Israel, despite talks with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction on suspending such attacks.

A pledge by Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin that “the march of martyrs will move forward” came a day after Israeli soldiers killed eight Palestinians, including six wanted men, in raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the past, Palestinian militias have retaliated for such killings by carrying out more attacks.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told army commanders that they must keep up the pressure on Palestinian militias as troops renewed arrest raids in the West Bank.

In the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, soldiers captured a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militia linked to Fatah, and found in his possession an audio tape in which announced he was planning a suicide bombing, the army said.

In Bethlehem, soldiers arrested the former head of the student council of Bethlehem University, a Fatah activist.