GAZA CITY, Aug 25: After the Israeli army’s chief of staff served notice that no militant was safe, leaders of the radical Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed on Monday that they would never be defeated.

Hamas political leader Abdulaziz Rantissi said the Israelis would “pay a high price” if they tried to wipe out his movement.

“We are continuing to face the Israeli aggression, but the Israeli occupation will pay a high price,” he told AFP.

Israeli army chief of staff Lt Gen Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday that there would be no let-up in pursuit of the hardliners.

Hamas co-founder Ismail Abu Shanab and the group’s chief of operations in Gaza, Ahmed Shtaui, have both been killed in Israeli air strikes in recent days.

“As far as we are concerned, the radical core, from the first to the last, are targets for liquidation,” Mr Yaalon said.

But Rantisi said his group was facing “nothing new”.

“The Israeli Zionist occupation is continuing the killing, assassinations, aggression, crimes and massacres.”

He also dismissed any talk of a new truce to replace a ceasefire which was shattered by a massive suicide bombing in Jerusalem last Tuesday and the subsequent assassination of the Hamas heavyweights.

“We cannot hear anything about a new truce because the entire atmosphere cannot bear a new truce.”