Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    GAZA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- A senior leader of Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement in Gaza said on Saturday that his movement would not disarm since resistance against Israel was a way to achieve the Palestinian people's goals.

    "For us, the resistance was not our aim but a way to reach the goals of the Palestinian people who are suffering from the occupation and have no other choices to face the Israeli aggression," said Naffez Azzam, a senior Jihad leader in Gaza City.

    Azzam's remarks came in response to earlier statements by Interior Minister of the Western-backed Palestinian government in West Bank saying al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, armed wing of Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, was dismantled.

    Interior Minister Abdel Razak al-Yehia also called on other Palestinian militant groups modeled after al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

    Rejecting al-Yehia's call, Azzam noted that it is not the right time for the Palestinians to lay down arms as 25 Palestinians were killed in various Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip over the past couple of weeks.