NBC: Last week there was a suicide bomber attack in Tel Aviv. The bomber was representing your organization. Was that a legitimate target for an attack by a member of Hamas?
       Sheik Yassin: Of course our principles and our policy are not to hurt civilians and innocents.

“what the Zionist entity and its ally America call “innocent civilians” are called in our Brigades and our Palestinian people’s lexicon settlers and usurpers of our lands. They will only receive death and displacement and if they wish to save their lives they have to pack up and leave before they regret it.” – 27/03/2002 Hamas Communique

This operation came as a reaction to the Israeli Army crimes inflicted on the Palestinian towns and villages, where they killed civilians, old men, women and children.

The attack is shocking," Amnesty International said. "There is no justification for the targeting of civilians."

"Deliberately killing civilians violates fundamental principles of international law and we call on Palestinian groups and individuals to cease such attacks immediately," the organization said.

       They collapsed houses over their inhabitants in the Jenin refugee camp. It is human nature to take revenge for the destruction of houses and random killing....

Human Rights Watch did not find evidence to support claims that the IDF massacred hundreds of Palestinians in the camp - Human Rights Watch.

"The realist lies for advantage. The fantasist lies to give his dreams a flavor of reality." - Mason Cooley
   
       Since that attack, many members of your Hamas organization have been arrested by the Palestinian Authority. Do you think those people should be in jail?
       Prisons should not be for those who are defending themselves. The man who is defending himself against the aggression should be blessed or have respect. The prisons should be for the criminal, the aggressor, the occupier ... who occupied the lands of others, who collapsed houses on the heads of the inhabitants — old people, women and children — using airplanes and tanks. That is who should be in prison.

“Our people do not accept other than Jihad and resistance as the main path to regain usurped rights.” – 27/03/2002 Hamas Communique

       Many members of your organization — and I see many of their pictures on the wall around here — are very young people who have died for the cause that Hamas believes in. Do you regret those deaths?
       I ask you a question: If you find yourself in your land occupied, you would believe in your nation’s right to defend themselves?
       
       

       So you do not regret it, because they are people who fought for what you do believe? Is that correct?
       Even an animal defends himself. The animal when he is attacked, he is defending himself, the bird when his kids are attacked, he is defending himself, the human which his land and homeland occupied, he would defend himself.
       Does it need more words to say that a human should defend himself or not? He would be forced to defend himself.
       
       Is martyring oneself in a suicide attack the only way to achieve the state of Palestine that you envision?
       No, no that’s not right. First of all, these operations are martyrdom, not suicide; secondly we are in front of an enemy who is fighting us with all means he has: F-16s, Cobra, Apaches [helicopters], missiles, tanks. He has resources of power.
       We are unarmed people, we have no forces, and our forces are very old and simple resources — a rifle, a grenade — so what are we going to do?

“I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not permit violence being inflicted on one’s opponent, but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy,” Mahatma Gandhi

“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.  Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.” Martin Luther King

The biggest force we do have is that one of us is going to be a martyr to defend himself. So the martyrdom is not only one direction, it is a way for us to defend ourselves and usually it is used in [at] necessary times and not anytime.

Amnesty International: Commenting on his preliminary findings following the autopsies he carried out in Jenin Hospital, Professor Derrick Pounder said "What was striking is what was absent. There were very few bodies in the hospital. There were also none who were seriously injured, only the 'walking wounded.' Thus, we have to ask: where are the bodies and where are the seriously injured?''

...    You are saying that Hamas will continue its activities against Israelis?
       The point here is that there is occupation, and as long as there is occupation, there is army against our people [and] then there should be resistance against it ...We are not ready to surrender to the occupation and we will resist against [Israel].
       
       Does that include the use of suicide bombers?
       The martyrdom operations are used to defend ourselves and, as I mentioned, it’s only happened when it is necessary. When we realize that this occupation ... implemented against us [includes] what is forbidden internationally, like attacking civilians and the bloodshed of innocents, we will use against him action for action. Now the ball is in the court of the Israeli; if he stops hurting the Palestinian civilians, our movement will not hurt civilians on the other side.

 
       So you will continue your attacks on Israel and the Israeli people even if that means that you will in return get more incursions, perhaps even here in Gaza?
       What is asked here is to raise the white flags? Or is it asked for the Israeli occupation to stop its aggression is to withdraw his army?
       
       
STANCE ON ‘OCCUPATION’
       Can I just clarify one thing when you say “occupation”? How do you define occupation? Do you mean the presence of troops in Jerusalem or do you mean occupation within Palestinian territories?
       We consider all of our homeland is occupied, but regarding the international position, I would accept that, in the first stage, that the Israelis leave the West Bank and Gaza.

<Eds: Natanya aka Um Khaled is in Israeli proper on the Mediterranean coast. Therefore in the Hamas view, all of Israel is occupied territory.>

       “The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.” – E.M. Cioran

       NBC correspondent Charles Sabine is on assignment in the Gaza Strip. The Razor Editors are on assignment in Ibeza Spain.