200 female suicide bombers are awaiting the Merkava tanks, Hamas senior Dr. Nizar Rian told the Kuweiti Al Jareeda Friday. Rian also said his organization had more than 50,000 armed fighters, who were endowed with "courage and are able to fight in the relevant territory." Reportedly, Rian was appointed commander of Hamas's military units whose mission is to beat back an expected Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. "They sleep and walk about armed with explosives, ready to attack Israeli tanks and to prevent them from progressing," Rian said. Women, he added, were not a new addition to the terrorist group's arsenal. Women were sent in the past to hit the "heart of the Israeli occupier's home" and while some Palestinians were against the use of women in combat roles, "the duty to guard the motherland is more important than any other priority."
Rian was also subtly critical of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's condemnation of incessant Kassam rocket fire on Israeli towns. "One cannot say that our simple rockets, which constitute a proper arsenal of weaponry in the world of warfare, are, as some politicians who take Jihad likely say, fireworks. Where are our weapons compared to the Zionist's sophisticated weapons? But where are the cowardly Zionists when compared to our brave warriors?" he asked rhetorically in the interview.