Defiant Leaders Dismiss Calls to Reinstate Ceasefire

In public the leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been defiant in the face of Israeli military air strikes on Gaza. Khaled Meshal, the group's political leader, called for a "third uprising" among Palestinians. Other senior Hamas figures have vowed revenge and dismissed talk of reviving a ceasefire with Israel.

Those comments match public anger among Gazans, which seems to have done little to dent support for the movement that won Palestinian elections three years ago and then seized full control of Gaza last year. Some more pragmatic elements within Hamas had been arguing in favor of the ceasefire with Israel which began in June. But although the ceasefire brought a halt to Israeli military operations and stopped the rocket fire into southern Israel, it did little to ease Israel's tough economic siege of the Gaza Strip.

Now some analysts say that the group has suffered a setback in Gaza. The large number of police and security buildings that were destroyed in Israel's attacks on Saturday may have undermined Hamas's control. "Almost all police stations cannot function and many security installations have been destroyed and that's going to paralyze the operations of their government," said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza.

He said it was difficult to explain why Hamas had not decided to continue the six-month ceasefire, even though it was breaking down in the final weeks. "I know they got the message that Israel was not going to tolerate any more rockets but it seems that they never thought this kind of attack would happen."

Hamas came under pressure from other, even more hardline militant groups in Gaza - notably Islamic Jihad - which had opposed the ceasefire from the start and which argued in favor of a return to violence. That may have convinced the Hamas hardliners not to continue the agreement - although in the final weeks both sides were breaking the ceasefire, beginning with an Israeli strike that killed several Hamas men in November on the night of the US presidential election.

Despite international prompting, few expect there is any chance of renewing the ceasefire. Even if the Palestinian side was keen, Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, is opposed to the idea.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of the Fatah movement which controls the West Bank, blamed Hamas for Israel's attacks.

Although Abbas has international support, some Palestinians who are not affiliated with either Fatah or Hamas found his words hard to swallow.

"He is failing to represent his people," said Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian MP who took part in a demonstration in Ramallah yesterday against the Gaza attacks. "He's putting himself in a very difficult position."