(AFP) – Nov 9, 2007

JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AFP) — A top Hamas leader warned Israel on Friday that its soldiers would be "cut to pieces" if the army launched a much threatened widescale offensive on the Islamist-run Gaza Strip.

"The occupiers should know that if they intend to enter the Gaza Strip they will leave cut into pieces," Mahmud Zahar told a Hamas-organised rally in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned late last month that every day brought closer the prospect of a full-scale military operation against the Gaza Strip to curb frequent rocket attacks on Israel.

Zahar also said an international meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the United States is preparing to host later this month would fail.

"Meet each other as often as you want but you won't get the homeland back or liberate the holy places. The autumn meeting does not frighten us," he said.

"The autumn leaves will fall but so will the yellow flags," added Zahar, alluding to the colour of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's moderate Fatah party, which Hamas routed in an armed Gaza takeover five months ago.

Instead, he counselled Fatah in the occupied West Bank to "learn the lesson of what happened in Gaza."

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