Hamas' was slammed by its Palestinian rivals on Saturday for expressing regret over the deaths of Israeli civilians during the Gaza war a year ago. Accordinhg to Reuters, A spokesman for the Fatah party said he was "stunned" at the remark in a report to the United Nations this week and said Hamas should apologize to fellow Palestinians for deaths and injury caused when Hamas routed Fatah forces to seize control in Gaza in 2007.
In a statement, Fatah's spokesman Ahmed Assaf urged Hamas "to apologise first to the Palestinian people for its bloody coup which has ... caused the worst damage to the Palestinian cause." According to him, Hamas' statement, issued to deflect U.N. accusations that its forces committed war crimes, had been an admission that such rocket-fire had not helped ordinary Palestinians.
Hamas officials said on Friday that any expression of regret did not mark an abandonment of suicide bombing as a tactic, even if such attacks have been in abeyance in recent years.
