Hamas stronger despite Gaza siege

Despite an Israeli plan to weaken Hamas through its long siege on the Gaza Strip, the resistance movement is getting stronger day by day, an analyst tells Press TV.

In an interview with Press TV, international lawyer Franklin Lamb said Israel’s four-year old siege on Gaza is the continuation of Tel Aviv’s war on the territory.

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27, 2008. The 22-day war killed at least 1,400 Palestinians and left thousands of others displaced.

“The continuation of the goals of Cast Lead [Operation] …is to break the spirit of the (Gaza) population there to skew the politics that they do not support — their government Hamas — [and] to weaken Hamas,” said Lamb.

“I think it is a continuation of Cast Lead in other forms,” he added.

“Every week it is stronger and the defense of Zionism cracks and becomes weaker.”

Senior Israeli officials recently admitted that the military campaign has been a failure.

“Israel’s siege has in fact made the resistance stronger, just as the attack in 2006 in Lebanon made the resistance stronger and it is growing,” Lamb said.

Israel fought the 33-day war to destroy Hezbollah’s military power in the summer of 2006, but eventually left southern Lebanon without achieving any of its objectives.