Hamas calls for retaliation against Israel

Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal has called on Palestinian fighters to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of the movement’s top commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.

“The time for promises and talk of revenge is done. Now is the time for action,” Mashaal said in a televised address from Damascus on Wednesday.

Meshaal also denounced what he termed as Israel’s terrorist activities against the Palestinians, saying Israel’s failure in its December-January 2008 war in the Gaza Strip revealed its “fake existence.”

Calling on the world to blacklist Israel as a terrorist entity, Mashaal said the regime would not get legitimacy and stability through terrorism.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians rallied in honor of the assassinated leader of Hamas.

“The decision to avenge the martyr Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has been taken,” Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, told the crowd.

Mabhouh, a senior commander in the armed wing of the Islamist movement, was assassinated last month in Dubai by a hit squad of at least 11 people carrying forged European passports, according to the Dubai police.