BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 7 (UPI) -- Sunni and Shiite militant groups vowed Friday to continue attacking Israel inside its territories and in a disputed area on its border with Lebanon.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian Sunni Hamas movement, said his group would pursue its "martyrdom" operations as long as Israel occupied the Palestinian territories.
"The soldiers, tanks and jets which are hitting us come from the territories occupied in 1948 and not in 1967," Yassin said in an interview with Lebanon's An Nahar newspaper. "So why should they enjoy security there?"
Yassin defended the suicide operations carried out by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against Israel, saying they "are self-defense operations in ... Palestinian territories."
"I say to whose who demand us to stop ... remove the Israeli occupation from our land and ... we will not carry out such operations," Yassin said.
He also warned Israel against invading the Gaza Strip.
"It's true that our capabilities are ... not at the level of the Israeli army, but I say to the Israeli leaders: 'If you enter (Gaza), you will pay a high price.'"
Meanwhile, the head of Lebanon's militant Shiite Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said his organization would continue its operations against Israel.
Commenting on Israeli reports that Hezbollah was preparing to stage major operations against Israel, Nasrallah said his group reserved the right to carry out attacks "at any time and occasion."
In a statement released Friday, Nasrallah said his guerrillas would pursue their attacks until "the liberation" of Palestine.
The comments from the two groups came as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was holding talks with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David, Md., for ending the Mideast conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is also due in Washington on Monday.
