LISBON: Hamas plans to fight Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu despite the country’s pullout from Gaza, a senior leader of the Islamic faction said in an interview published here yesterday. “The two are criminals. We want and we will see them out of Palestine, dead or alive,” Mahmoud Al Zahar told Portuguese news weekly Visao. “We will pursue them wherever they are. And we will pursue their children and grandchildren and put on trial all those who have committed crimes against our people, just like the Nazis (were put on trial),” he added. Al Zahar said Hamas would continue to press the Jewish state to withdraw from even more occupied land and would not disarm despite the pullout from all 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank. “We have no alternative but to protect our people from Israeli aggressions. They can’t continue to kill children. This causes us great suffering and it is the main cause of our armed struggle,” Al Zahar said. Meanwhile, the European Union yesterday welcomed the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank and applauded the “restraint” showed by both Israel and the Palestinians during the pullout.

photo: Israeli security guards yesterday beat up a Palestinian demonstrator at the construction site of Israel’s separation wall during a protest in the West Bank village of Ramadin near Hebron.  – Reuters
	It was also confirmed that EU European Union Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana is to make a three-day visit to the Middle East next week. A statement issued by the British EU presidency said the 25-member bloc as well as its candidate countries “commends the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority for their commitment”. Solana is expected in Israel on Sunday, and on Monday and Tuesday in the Palestinian Territories, where he will discuss the pullout as well as the peace process, before proceeding to Beirut for talks with new Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. In MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators would meet next month to discuss the establishment of Palestinian control over evacuated Israeli settlements. “Having emphasised the significance of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, we expressed our common opinion that this withdrawal should be completed in all its aspects in order to secure the possibility for existence of the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank under Palestinian administration,” Lavrov said. – Agencies