(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Vowing to destroy Israel, Hamas paraded some 2,000 of its armed fighters and truck-mounted rockets through Gaza yesterday, marking its 27th anniversary with its biggest show of force since the end of the Gaza war this summer.
At the parade, a senior Hamas leader reaffirmed the Islamist movement's founding charter's pledge to destroy Israel.
"This illusion called Israel will be removed. It will be removed at the hands of the Qassam Brigades," said Khalil Al Hayya, a top Hamas leader, referring to the movement's armed wing.
Abu Ubaida, the brigades' spokesman, said another confrontation with Israel might be inevitable unless tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed in the Gaza Strip in last summer's conflict are rebuilt soon.
"We will accept no less than the rebuilding of everything that was destroyed by the savage Zionist aggression," said the masked spokesman, whose group is shunned by the West as a terrorist organisation.
Both Israel and Egypt - which is battling Islamist militants in neighbouring Sinai - are concerned Hamas could use such material for weaponry.
Trucks carrying what Hamas said were long-range rockets, and other vehicles with multiple-launcher rockets drove in the parade. A drone with Hamas markings was on one flatbed truck, and another unmanned aircraft, identified by the group as one of its own, flew overhead, as did an Israeli fighter jet.
Addressing a crowd of several thousand, Abu Ubaida praised Iran for supplying Hamas with money and weapons.
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