Hamas: Israel aims to interfere in our internal elections

The Islamic resistance movement ( Hamas) rejected the Israeli intervention in the Palestinian legislative elections set for January 2006, stressing that the "elections are but an internal Palestinian issue."

The spokesman for the movement Sami Abu Zahri said that Hamas will take part in the legislative elections whenever it takes place "and the resistance owning weapons is linked to the existence of occupation, rather than for participation in the legislative elections."

This came in reaction to the announcement made by the Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom that Israel will not accept Hamas's participation in the Palestinian legislative elections.

Shalom said in a statement to the Israeli public radio "we are determined not to give Hamas the possibility to carry weapons in one hand and continue behaving as a terrorist organization, and on the other hand, take part in the elections."

He added that the Israeli government will spare no efforts so as "not to legitimize the Hamas movement," and that this issue was discussed Wednesday morning.