GAZA CITY, Sept 28: The radical Palestinian groups Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades vowed on Sunday to continue the armed uprising against Israel as thousands of people rallied to mark the intifada’s third anniversary.

“We affirm our determination to continue the intifada until occupation ends and we demand that the Palestinian Authority and new government resist pressure from Americans and the Zionists aimed at ending our right to resist,” Hamas said in a statement.

“Resistance is the only language that the enemy understands and the only means to free Palestine from occupation,” said a similar statement from Al-Aqsa, a militant offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group.

Both groups have been responsible for numerous attacks on Israeli targets and Israel has been actively trying to kill Hamas leaders since it declared “total war” on the organization.

In the West Bank town of Nablus, meanwhile, some 5,000 Palestinians hit the streets in a new rally to mark the anniversary, an AFP reporter said.

The demonstrators, many carrying Palestinian flags and those of Hamas and its smaller rival Islamic Jihad, marched from Al Najah University to the town centre, chanting slogans of defiance.

“Get rid of the occupation not our leaders,” was the common refrain, a reference to Israel’s threat to exile Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

They set fire to a cardboard replica of an aircraft with an Israeli flag.

Israeli soldiers, who were on duty in the town, did not intervene and the rally passed off without incident.

The serious violence of the intifada started on Sept 29, 2000 when bloody clashes broke out at the Al Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Al Quds Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site.

But many Palestinians say it was sparked when then Israeli defence minister Ariel Sharon, now prime minister, paid a provocative visit to the compound the previous day.

At least 3,497 people have been killed during the uprising, including 2,612 Palestinians and 822 Israelis.

For many radical Palestinians, the “liberation of Palestine” means not only an end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip but also the elimination of the Jewish state.

Late on Saturday, hundreds of Palestinians also marched in Bethlehem to mark the anniversary.

The marchers, many carrying candles or Palestinian flags, made their way along a main city artery before congregating at Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity, built over what Christians believe was Jesus Christ’s birthplace.

On Friday, hundreds of Hamas supporters also turned out for the occasion in the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusseirat.

Some 200 masked and gun-toting militants paraded with models of the Qassam rockets used by the Hamas military wing and burnt a coffin covered with the Israeli and US flags.—AFP