Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya vowed before thousands of supporters of his Hamas movement on Thursday that Israel's 'terrorist and military option' in the Gaza Strip will fail.
"We say to them (the Israelis): you have failed to destroy the will (of the Palestinians) and to change the political programme (of Hamas) with your unjust siege. You will fail in your terrorist and military option," Haniya said in front of parliament.
Earlier on Thursday, five Palestinians were killed when the Israeli army reoccupied the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanun as part of a major incursion it began on Wednesday.
A total of 13 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israeli forces launched Operation Autumn Clouds early on Wednesday aimed, it said, at stopping Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
Haniya, who heads an Islamist-led government boycotted by the West, and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday both condemned the Israeli incursion as a "massacre".