Facts about Ahmed Yassin

"The Palestinian situation is different. We can have military cooperation with other factions in the Palestinian territories. But we cannot have this with Hizbullah in Lebanon"

"The current stage does not allow the entrance of everyone into a military conflict, however everyone must be ready for the day in which it might take place, as the Zionist enemy is planning to attack our people and to control our land once again"

"History has proven that the PLO and its sectors suffered great damage when walking the way of harming Zionist interests in other countries around the world"

"Hamas' battle is against the Zionist occupation in the Palestinian land. Hamas has no desire to change its battlefield"

"Our priorities require that all children of Palestine, men and women, be ready for conflict, both from the standpoint of training and from the standpoint of armament"

"It is an exaggeration to call the Hamas and Islamic Jihad announcement a military alliance. It is rather a message that our people are united in the face of Israeli aggression"

"There are many resistance movements in the world, like the IRA for instance. But it is only Islamic resistance movements that are put on the terrorist list. This is what I am saying"

"However, the resources at our people's disposal are very few and we require assistance from the neighboring Arab countries, and for weapons in order to fight the enemy"

"Gaza has 1.2 million Palestinians living in crowded places and the resistance will be strong"

"There are house demolitions and destruction all over the West Bank and Gaza. Just yesterday in Gaza they demolished three towers under the pretext that they were built close to a settlement"

"The so-called peace path is not peace and it is not a substitute for jihad and resistance"

"Since Israel does not differentiate between attacking this group or that, we are saying our people can work individually or collectively to face this aggression"

"Resistance in Palestine will continue until the final liberation of all the Palestinian lands"

"In all cases our stance will be determined by what serves the interests of the Palestinian people"

"If it is in the interest of the Palestinian people to have a hudna, we'll have a hudna. If it isn't, we won't"

"Days will prove that the assassination policy will not finish the Hamas. Hamas leaders wish to be martyrs and are not scared of death. Jihad will continue and the resistance will continue until we have victory, or we will be martyrs"

"There are perhaps opportunities for greater political cooperation, at least more cooperation than exists now. But there can be no cooperation in the field because every situation is different"

"We wish that all countries around the world honor our wishes and our Jihad, and we avoid interfering in their business"

"We chose this road, and will end with martyrdom or victory"

"Our strategy is to defend ourselves against an occupying army and against settlers and settlements"

"I think Israel will think one thousands times before invading Gaza"

"But if Sharon wants to occupy Gaza, let him come. Israel will pay the price"

"We did not fight the Americans or the Europeans. We fight only the Israeli enemy that took our homes and homeland"

"The Hamas has taken the path of avoiding causing harm to Zionist interests outside of Palestine, not from weakness or lack of ability to do so, but because Hamas does not wish for further fronts to be opened against it around the world"

"Our main battle has always been against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers"

"Our Jihad will remain on Palestinian soil that is wide and large"

"Israel, as the Jewish state, must disappear from the map"

"The attacks inside Israel are operations we carry out in response to Israeli crimes against our people"

"Sons of Islam everywhere, the jihad is a duty - to establish the rule of Allah on earth and to liberate your countries and yourselves from America's domination and its Zionist allies, it is your battle - either victory or martyrdom"

"In the past there was a difference between the conditions in which Hizballah operated in Lebanon and the conditions of resistance operated in Palestine"