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17834
“Mashaal: First Gaza, Then Ramallah, Then Jerusalem”
by JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS   
December 8th, 2012

Thousands of Gazans gathered Saturday to to mark Hamas's founding and celebrate its "victory" over Israel.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who attended the rally, set his sights on "liberating Palestine" upon his arrival in the Gaza Strip on Friday, his first-ever visit to the Palestinian enclave.

Laying out his hopes for future triumphant visits, Mashaal told cheering crowds, "Today is Gaza. Tomorrow will be Ramallah and after that Jerusalem, then Haifa and Jaffa," Ma'an News Agency reported.

According to the report, Mashaal referred to the Gaza visit as his "third birth"; his second birth, he said, was surviving an Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997.

"I pray to God that my fourth birth will come the day we liberate Palestine," he added.

Hamas said that half a million Palestinians gathered at the outdoor event, which was likely to be used by Mashaal to promote Hamas's growing stature in the Arab world and push the case for reconciliation with its secular political rival, Fatah.

Mashaal, 56, is on his first visit to the Gaza Strip and was moved to tears on Friday by the ecstatic reception he received from flag-waving crowds as he toured the tiny territory, which is home to 1.7 million Palestinians.

His trip comes just two weeks after Hamas fought an eight-day conflict with Israel that killed some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis and ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

There is little doubt the fighting boosted Hamas's standing in the region, winning it the support of Arab neighbors, many of whom used to treat the group as a pariah before the Arab Spring uprisings ushered in several sympathetic Islamist governments.

"Israel must now be fuming as it watches this Gaza victory," said Abu Waleed, 52, as he stood in a crowd on Friday, waiting to catch a glimpse of Mashaal, who survived a 1997 assassination attempt by Mossad agents in Jordan.

The rally on Saturday commemorates the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas and the start of the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israel in December 1987.

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