Hamas Chief: Truce With Israel Is Over

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal said Wednesday that a truce with Israel is finished and his group's militants can resume fighting following an Israeli tank attack that killed 18 Palestinians.

 

Militants will answer the deaths with "deeds, not words," Mashaal told a news conference in the Syrian capital.

 

"The truce (with Israel) ended at the end of 2005," Mashaal said. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances."

 

The truce formally ended last year but had remained in effect.

 

Palestinian witnesses and officials said Israeli tank shells crashed into a residential neighborhood early Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, including 10 children, in their sleep.

 

Security officials said that five tank shells landed in the area near the town of Beit Hanoun within 15 minutes. Most of the casualties were in a row of homes belonging to members of one extended family, officials said.