Hamas denies suicide Web site allegation

JERUSALEM, March 16 (UPI) -- Palestinian militant group Hamas says it has nothing to do with a kid cartoon-style Web site that praises suicide bombings, reports the Jerusalem Post.

Two Israeli groups say the Web site al-fateh.net, which encourages children to commit suicide to kill Israelis, is run by the militant Islamic group.

Farhat Abu-Assad, a Hamas official in Ramallah, denied Hamas runs the site and told The Post, "You should ask (the Israelis) where they have this information from."

He said many Islamic sites sympathize with Hamas "but that does not make them Hamas Web sites. The (people who run these sites) are private individuals that might sympathize with Hamas, but Hamas does not recognize these Web sites."

Itamar Marcus, head of an Israeli organization which monitors and translates Palestinian Arabic language media, said the site along with palestine-info.com and palestinegallery.com are official Hamas sites.