Surprised? Only if you, like the mainstream media (Left and Right) and large sectors of the Administration, have exchanged wishes for fact. From Reuters, with thanks to Scaramouche:
GAZA, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said on Saturday it would fight to drive Israel out of the West Bank and Jerusalem after the Jewish state completes its withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip this year.
“Gaza is not Palestine,” a masked spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing told a news conference in Gaza City.
“As for Jerusalem and the West Bank, we will seek to liberate them by resistance just as the Gaza Strip was liberated,” said the spokesman, surrounded by gunmen and militants with rocket launchers.
He did not explicitly say Hamas, committed to destroying Israel, planned to abandon a truce at the end of 2005.
Militants had agreed to respect a ceasefire until the end of the year at the behest of President Mahmoud Abbas, who wanted to ensure a quiet withdrawal of the settlers from Gaza — due to end next week.