Israel to pay high price if Gaza reoccupied: Hamas

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has warned Israel against any reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, saying Tel Aviv will pay dearly for any such aggression.

“We tell the enemy and (Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman who is threatening to reoccupy Gaza that the time for your threats is over,” Haniyeh told a rally in Gaza City on Sunday.

“Any aggression or crime or stupidity you commit will cost you a very high price,” he pointed out.

On March 12, Lieberman called for the full reoccupation of the besieged Gaza Strip amid rising tensions in the region. He made the remarks on Israel’s Channel 2 television following a retaliatory attack by Islamic Jihad movement against Israel earlier in the day.

Haniyeh also reiterated Hamas’s strong opposition to the so-called peace talks between Palestinians and the Israeli regime.

“Stop negotiating with the enemy. We will not recognize Israel,” he told the Palestinian Authority.

On March 20, Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas said the US-mediated talks had reached an “impasse” because of Tel Aviv’s “settlement activity.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry brokered the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians after a three-year gap. Kerry has given the two sides a nine-month deadline to reach a deal.

The Israeli regime is apparently pushing ahead with plans for more than 2,000 new illegal settler units in six settlements in the occupied West Bank.