GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Ismail Haniyeh, the front-runner to be the next Palestinian prime minister, appeared yesterday at the graveside of three Fatah militants in what was seen as a signal of continued support for armed resistance.
Mr. Haniyeh postponed a vital trip to Cairo to attend the funerals for the three men, who were killed Saturday night in an Israeli helicopter strike. It is highly unusual for a Hamas leader to attend the funeral of fighters from the rival Fatah movement.
“These killings will increase the citizens’ unity, and boost their steadfastness and their resistance against the Zionist occupation,” said the Hamas leader, who walked with the cortege amid intermittent gunfire and the blaring martial music in praise of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Ahmed Hilles, the Fatah secretary-general for the Gaza Strip, stood alongside Mr. Haniyeh as relatives and Fatah gunmen, some wearing masks, shoveled brown clay over the three bodies that had been wrapped in shawls emblazoned with Fatah’s emblematic crossed rifles and a hand grenade. Many green Hamas flags were also in evidence.
“The presence of Haniyeh is something strange. We have not seen this before,” said Hazem Abu Shanab, a professor of political science at Al Azhar University of Gaza. “I think Hamas did try to send a signal also that they are supporting the Palestinian activists sticking to resistance activity. ’I am so close to you.’”
In an earlier interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Haniyeh contradicted public statements from Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who was quoted as telling reporters late last week that Hamas should recognize Israel and repudiate violence.
Mr. Haniyeh also said Hamas already had negotiated a deal with Egypt that would provide the Palestinian territories with gasoline prices far lower than those now charged by Israel.
The interview was conducted at Mr. Haniyeh’s home on a narrow alley inside the Beach Camp, which houses the descendants of refugees from Israel’s war of independence against the combined Arab armies in 1948-49.
Banners congratulating Hamas on its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections 12 days ago were stretched across the alley. Mr. Haniyeh is often spoken of as the most likely choice for prime minister in a Hamas-led Palestinian government.
In the first at-home interview he has given since the election, Mr. Haniyeh said Egypt has already agreed to sell the Palestinians gasoline at about one-fifth what they now pay Israel for the fuel.
The highly subsidized price is similar to what the Egyptian government charges its own citizens. Egypt has plentiful oil from the Sinai Desert, which was returned to Egypt by Israel after a 1979 peace agreement.
Mr. Haniyeh, a large silver-bearded man with a strong handshake, denied published reports that Cairo was pressuring Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, to declare an end to violence and to disarm its militias. He claimed the Egyptians had withdrawn a statement made by its top security official at a Cairo press conference three days ago.
“Nobody will talk to [Hamas] before they stop violence, recognize Israel and accept [peace] agreements, including the ’road map,’” Mr. Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence service chief, was quoted as saying.
But Mr. Haniyeh insisted, “No, he told us he did not say that.
“There is pressure from the Arab street on all Arab governments to help the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian people have chosen Hamas to run Palestine. Arab governments will respect that — and we wish the West would, too.”
Asked whether he felt Hamas could handle the international pressure to change its ways, he smiled broadly and said: “I am by nature an optimist.”
He said the new Hamas government would focus on separating the Palestinian economy from Israel’s, relying on Arab and Islamic links, and work to root out “financial mismanagement.”
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