GAZA, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The Palestinian Hamas movement Sunday condemned Israel's assassination of three Fatah activists in an overnight air raid on a Gaza sports club.
Ismail Haniyeh, the newly-elected legislator heading the Hamas bloc in the Palestine Legislative Council, told reporters during the funeral of the three activists that their killing was a "condemned crime."
He said Hamas condemns all "Zionist assassinations against the Palestinian people, regardless of their affiliations."
Israeli warplanes bombed a sports club frequented by activists from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing, in which the three were killed and five others were injured.
Haniyeh said the assassination was a "continuation of the policy of murder and destruction by the Zionist occupation against the Palestinian people," adding that Israel was trying to "strike at the will of the Palestinians and kill their spirit of steadfastness and resistance."
On the murder of an Israeli woman and injuring of five others near Tel Aviv earlier in the day by a Palestinian, the Hamas leader blamed the Israeli occupation.
He said if Israel wanted stability in the region, it should "stop its aggression and start to seriously think about leaving, and for the Palestinians to regain all their rights."
Haniyeh postponed a scheduled visit to Cairo Sunday for talks on forming a new government so that he could participate in the funeral of the three Fatah activists.