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Hamas vows to continue fight

Gunmen take over Gaza City's central square

GAZA CITY: In a challenge to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, dozens of masked Hamas gunmen took over Gaza City's central square on Saturday and announced they would not stop attacks on Israel, despite that country's ongoing withdrawal from Gaza Strip.

Mr. Abbas, who is under intense international pressure to disarm militant groups, has been urging them not to flaunt their weapons in public.

However, even the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group with ties to Mr. Abbas' ruling Fatah movement, has largely ignored his appeal.

Police stand by

On Saturday, several dozen Hamas gunmen took over Gaza's central square and closed all entrances to it.

Police personnel approached, but did not interfere as the gunmen announced they would not lay down their arms.

``This retreat does not mean the end of our battle, but it is the beginning,'' said a spokesman for the Hamas military wing, who identified himself only by his nom-de-geurre, Abu Obaideh. ``Our battle with the (Israeli) enemy is long and will continue,'' Abu Obaideh said, addressing a group of some 40 armed and masked Hamas members who had gathered in a square outside the Palestinian Parliament building.

Polls on January 25

Palestinian parliamentary elections will be held January 25, Mr. Abbas announced on Saturday.

The elections were to have been held in July, but were postponed indefinitely because of Israel's Gaza pullout.

In setting a firm date, Mr. Abbas was making a conciliatory gesture to his political rival, Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in the vote.

``The parliamentary election will take place in all of the homeland districts on Wednesday, January 25, 2006,'' Mr. Abbas told a ``model parliament'' of high school students in Gaza City on Saturday. — AP

85 per cent evacuated

NEVE DEKALIM (Gaza Strip): Israeli forces have now evacuated more than 85 per cent of Gaza's Jewish settlers and all should be out by Monday, after nearly 40 years of occupation, police said on Saturday.

Following three days of forced evacuations, during which settlers were carried weeping from their homes and protesters pulled screaming from synagogues by unarmed soldiers, only four of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip remain.

The removal of settlements is the first from land that Palestinians want for a state under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for ``disengagement'' from conflict, backed by Washington as a possible step to peace. — Reuters

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