Hamas: Gaza will be a graveyard for IDF troops

Group's spokesmen react to IDF's ground incursion with threats; insist Hamas leadership not hiding.

Hamas spokesmen were quick to react to the entrance of IDF ground troops into the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, making threats and insisting that Israel would regret the decision to proceed with the expansion of the operation. "You entered like rats," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told IDF soldiers in a statement on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV. "Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing," he said. In another message, Hamas warned Israeli forces that "Gaza will not be paved with flowers for you, it will be paved with fire and hell." Earlier, Channel 10 quoted a spokesman for Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, as saying "Israel will pay a heavy price." Another spokesman sent an SMS to the Associated Press, insisting, "The Zionists started approaching the trap which our fighters prepared for them." In related news, Hamas spoke out against Israel's "use of psychological warfare against Hamas." Channel 2 reported that a statement had been sent, calling on the world not to "believe the rumors" that say Hamas's leadership is hiding underground.