GAZA, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas stressed his government is legitimate and constitutional, accusing foreign and internal forces of seeking to oust him.
Haniyeh, who fainted for a few minutes while addressing thousands of supporters in Gaza Friday, said Hamas was not parachuted into power from the top of a tank or as a result of international deals and manipulations.
"The government of Hamas is legitimate on the popular, jihadist, constitutional and Islamic fronts," Haniyeh said.
He accused foreign and domestic parties of complicity in tightening the noose on the Hamas government and stepping up the economic and financial blockade as a means of political blackmail.
"We will not fall and they will not force us into changing our stances," Haniyeh vowed, in obvious reference to the United States, Israel and its main local rival, the Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
"The Palestinian government was brought to power by the will of the Palestinian people and enjoys more than one legitimacy, including the popular one," Haniyeh said to the cheers of Hamas supporters.
"This government was born from the womb of the resistance, which gives it a jihadist legitimacy...It also has a constitutional legitimacy since it was not imposed by force or on the back of tanks, in addition to enjoying an Islamic and Arab legitimacy by the peoples who believe in rights and freedoms," Haniyeh added.
Hundreds of Hamas gunmen and members of the executive force, affiliated with the interior ministry, guarded roads leading to Gaza City's Yarmouk sports stadium where the prime minister was speaking.
The executive forces clashed with Fatah fighters last week, in which nine people were killed and 100 others injured in the Gaza fighting.
