Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal warned Israel could face another Palestinian uprising unless conditions in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank improved.
Meshaal told the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam in an interview published yesterday that continuation of a Western economic embargo of the Palestinian government and military actions by Israel would "give notice to a huge explosion that would not only affect the Palestinians but also the entire region, especially the Zionist entity."
"I warn and say that I see that the current situation is heading in the direction of the conditions that prevailed in the late 1990s ... that paved the way for the al-Aqsa intifada," Meshaal said. "I warn and under `warn' I put many red lines."
Release
Meshaal also demanded that Israel release top Palestinian leaders in return for a captured soldier.
Hamas Islamists formed a unity government last month with President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah faction in a bid to end internal fighting and ease the year-old economic embargo.
But tensions between Hamas and Fatah remain high, particularly in the Gaza Strip, and a Western ban on direct aid to the Palestinian Authority remains in place.
Rockets
The armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement broke a five-month-old Gaza ceasefire last week by firing rockets into Israel in response to the killing of nine Palestinians by Israeli forces.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday Israel would take measures to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip or attempting to infiltrate the Jewish state.
Meshaal defended the firing of rockets saying it was a response to Israeli killing of Palestinians but told al-Ayyam he hoped a ceasefire could be expanded from Gaza to the occupied West Bank.
Sanctions
Western powers imposed crippling sanctions on the Palestinian Authority after the Islamist Hamas came to power in March 2006 after beating Abbas's secular Fatah faction in parliamentary elections.
The international community cut off aid to the Palestinians after that government refused demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous signed peace agreements.
Though the government now includes the more moderate Fatah, it has not explicitly accepted any of those conditions, and most Western nations are maintaining the aid boycott to the government, while funding some aid projects directly.
Meshaal, who held talks with Abbas in Cairo on Friday, has criticized Arab countries for being slow to live up to financial commitments made to the Palestinians.
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