GAZA, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- A spokesman of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Thursday that the Middle East region would be a better place without Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who has been hospitalized for a severe stroke.

    Musheer al-Masri, Hamas' spokesman in the Gaza Strip, also urged the Palestinian leadership not to be influenced by changes in the Israeli political life due to Sharon's grave illness.

    Meanwhile, Anwar Abu Taha, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) termed Sharon as "one of the tyrants who has committed scores of bloody massacres against the Palestinian people."

    In addition, Palestinian witnesses said that a group of Palestinian teenagers, who were members of the Palestinian Youths Parliament, distributed flowers to people and bystanders in the streets of the southern Gaza town of Rafah upon learning Sharon's hospitalization.

    Elsewhere in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian gunmen fired into the air to express joy over the illnesses of Sharon. The Islamic Hamas and Jihad are two major Palestinian militant groups sworn to Israel's destruction.

    The 77-year-old Sharon was hit by a significant stroke late on Wednesday and underwent a lengthy surgery earlier on Thursday.

    He has been transferred to an intensive care unit following a second operation that succeeded in halting his cerebral haemorrhage. Doctors said that Sharon is now in a severe but stable condition. It is the second time that Sharon was admitted to hospital in less than a month.

    Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has taken over Sharon 's responsibilities.

    Sharon's grave illness has cast shadows over the prospects for his newly-founded Kadima party in the upcoming Israeli general elections due on March 28 and thrown more uncertainty to the fragile Mideast peace process. Enditem