GAZA CITY
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas early on Friday described as "bias toward Israel" statements by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday.
During a Security Council session on the situation in the Palestinian territories on Thursday, Ban Ki-moon said a land invasion of Gaza by Israel could be stopped if the coastal Palestinian enclave suspends rocket attacks against Israel.
"This is a changing of facts and bias toward Israel," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement early on Friday. "These statements amount to an attempt to terrorize the Palestinians," he added.
He said the international community needed to stand by the Palestinian people and support their right to defense themselves instead.
At least 90 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured in three days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as part of a military offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from Gaza.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets into Israel – without causing any fatalities thus far – in response to the unrelenting airstrikes.
By Mustafa Haboosh
http://www.aa.com.tr/en
