Hamas, under mounting international pressure to renounce violence, asserted the Palestinians’ “right to self defence” on Sunday after the first Israeli air raids since its election victory last month.Three members of another militant group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, were killed in a series of overnight air strikes focused on northern Gaza which Israel said were in response to a rocket attack on a kibbutz. Al Aqsa, an offshoot of Fatah, vowed to retaliate, saying suicide bombers were ready to exact their revenge.Ismail Haniya, Hamas’ candidate in the January 25 election, said he had decided not go to Egypt in the aftermath of the attack. However, another senior member of the organisation, Mahmud Al Zahar, travelled across the Rafah border in the morning. “We condemn this crime, this assassination which only increases the unity of the Palestinian people,” Haniya said.“People have the right to defend themselves in the faceof these acts by the occupation,” he added.
