The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Tuesday that the retaliation by the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli aggression on Gaza will continue till "all demands of our people are met".
"Any Israeli unilateral ceasefire is of no value after the major crimes committed in Gaza, as well as the continuation of the disastrous human crisis (in the Strip)," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri said in a statement, not mentioning the movement's demands for a ceasefire with Israel.
"Hamas hasn't so far received any official initiatives from whosoever," Abu-Zuhri stressed, saying "what is being circulated on disarming the resistance is out of question". "We are people under occupation and resistance by all means is a right guaranteed for the occupied".
Abu-Zuhri also said that a ceasefire before reaching calm is rejected. It has never happened in wars that a ceasefire comes first, before negotiations." Meanwhile, member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation organisation (PLO), Hanan Ashrawi, said the Palestinian leadership had decided to join the Rome Statute, paving the way for joining the International Criminal Court.
"We will use all available means to rein the Israeli aggression and prosecute Israel," Ashrawi said in a statement.
On the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians, the PLO official said that it is the initial step to stop the aggression, to be followed by political steps to end the siege over the Gaza Strip and curb the non-stop aggressions.