Hamas's Meshaal urges new intifada against Israel

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on Saturday for Palestinians to wage a new intifada against Israel, including a return to suicide missions.
In an interview on Al-Jazeera television, Meshaal said: "We called for a military intifada against the enemy. Resistance will continue through suicide missions."
Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack on Israel since January 2005.
The first intifada, or uprising, broke out in 1988, and was followed by the 1993 Oslo peace accords, which led to a certain degree of Palestinian autonomy with the creation of the Palestinian Authority.
A second intifada broke out in 2000 and eventually ran out of steam three years later.
Meshaal said Hamas had accepted "all the peaceful options, but without results."
He said that for there to be any talks with the people of Gaza, "the blockade must be lifted and the crossings (from Israel) opened ... notably that in Rafah," which leads to Egypt.
Meshaal was referring to a blockade imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the overcrowded, impoverished strip in from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June 2007. Israel, the United States and other world powers consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.
Meshaal said he was open to reconciliation with Abbas, but demanded that the Palestinian president cease peace negotiations with Israel.
"Neither rockets nor suicide operations are absure, but negotiations are," he said.
Israel hammered Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 225 people in retaliation for rocket fire, in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.