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OPT: Hamas says can't accept ceasefire under Israeli military escalation

GAZA, Dec 24, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --A leading Hamas member said Monday that the Islamic movement seriously deals with Israeli threats to increase military operations in the Gaza Strip and can't accept a ceasefire under such atmosphere.

"The Zionist enemy continues terrorist acts and attacks on the Palestinian people and it seems this thing will not stop. So, from our side, we won't also stop and we have to defend our people," Khalil Abu Laila, chief of Hamas' foreign relations section, told reporters in Gaza.

Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip issued conflicting signals over readiness to stick to a mutual ceasefire with Israel to secure that the rulers of the coastal strip won't be harmed.

Abu Laila, meanwhile, asserted that the Palestinian factions which hold an Israeli soldier in Gaza did not change their conditions for a possible exchange of prisoners between Israel and the captors led by Hamas.