The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Damascus

Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal on Saturday slammed Israel's assault on Gaza as a "Holocaust" in which the blood of Palestinian children was being shed to bolster prospects in next month's Israeli elections.

"The enemy has failed by creating a real Holocaust on the soil of Gaza," Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, said in a pre-recorded statement aired on Arab satellite televisions Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. "Palestinian blood has become a means to win elections," he said, addressing the Israeli people whose leaders are to face off in general elections on February 10.

Meshaal said the military campaign had been a failure. "What did you achieve through this wart other than the killing of children, of innocents?" he asked the Israeli leadership.