Haniyeh ignores Israeli death threats

The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip says that Prime Minister Isma'il Haniyeh will ignore Israeli assassination threats and will go about is daily life as normal, Ma'an news agency reported.

A Hamas government spokesperson said standard security measures would be in place to protect Haniyeh's life. However, Reports that Haniyeh had gone into hiding, spokesperson Tahir An-Nunu said, are no more than "distasteful Israeli jokes."

"That was incorrect. He did not go into hiding, neither did he run away. Haniyeh did not panic, and he practices his daily life as usual," An-Nunu added.

Asked about reports that Haniyeh moved to a new house, An-Nunu said only that Hamas has taken security precautions, but not to the degree of sending its leaders into hiding.

Hamas spokesperson Isma'il Radwan also commented on the Israeli news. He said, smilingly, "Here we are answering calls on cell phones; we have not disappeared."

He said, "We will not disappear, and resistance will continue as the occupation's leaders should realize that Hamas' leaders believe that it is only God who decides when we die, and after all we are willing to die as martyrs."

"The intensive security measures are meant to avoid the occupation's plots to hit Hamas' leaders, and if they do so, a volcano will erupt in their faces," Radwan added.

He said that the 2004 assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yasin did not cause Hamas to collapse.