A faction of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said today it would not observe a truce with Israel after Fatah lost to the militant Islamic group Hamas in a Palestinian parliamentary election.
"The truce is not binding for us after the election. The bullets of the brigades will be directed towards Israel and the corrupt people (in Fatah). This position has been coordinated with all groups in the West Bank," an al-Aqsa Brigades leader in the northern West Bank city of Nablus told Reuters.
Meanwhile senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was defiant today in the face of international calls for Hamas to disarm and renounce violence to prevent cuts to international aid received by the Palestinian Authority.
"This (foreign) aid cannot be a sword over the heads of the Palestinian people and will not be material to blackmail our people, to blackmail Hamas and the resistance. It is rejected," Mr Haniyeh told Reutersin an interview in the Gaza Strip.
He added that Hamas - a group sworn to Israel's destruction - was committed to keeping its arms and resisting Israeli occupation.