[An Nahar] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, chief Khaled Meshaal said Monday his movement is committed to efforts to secure a truce with Israel, but insisted the Jewish state must lift its six-year blockade of the Gazoo Strip."We are committed to a ceasefire, but Israel must stop its aggression," Meshaal said. "We don't want an escalation, because Hamas and all resistance factions are courageous but they are also rational," he added.
"The morale in Gazoo is very high," the Islamist leader boasted.
Nearly 100 people have been killed in the Hamas-ruled Gazoo Strip since Israel began a massive air campaign aimed at halting rocket fire from the Paleostinian enclave on Wednesday.
The Hamas chief, who was in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials who are trying to broker a ceasefire, said Israel had sought a truce.