The ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip is aimed at pressing the Palestinians to recognize Israel, Palestinian lawmakers from the governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) denounced on Saturday.

Salah al-Bardawil, spokesman of Hamas lawmakers, told reporters in Gaza that "the Israeli aggression was intended to boost pressure on the Palestinians to stabilize the term of recognizing Israel."

Al-Bardawil underlined that Hamas cannot recognize the Jewish state because it "seizes Jerusalem and annexes Palestinian land by building the West Bank wall and building more settlements."

Meanwhile, al-Qassam Brigades, one of Hamas' armed wing, asserted that the Israeli incursions into Gaza "was an evidence of the failure of the Israeli army".

"The Israeli crimes are not strange and they improve the failure beset the political and military leadership of the Zionist army," said the brigades' spokesman Abu Obaida.

Israel has been carrying out ground and air operations against the Gaza Strip since late June after Palestinian militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The Jewish troops geared up its offensive on Thursday and some senior Palestinian security officials feared that the escalation could be a test operation apparently aimed at reoccupying the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip coincided with internal violence between members and supporters from both governing Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

On Thursday, a local leader of Hamas was killed by unknown militant in front of his Gaza house and Hamas accused Fatah movement of being behind the killing.

Meanwhile, the Auxiliary Forces of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry announced it had arrested the killers while Fatah accused the Auxiliary Forces of involving in internal clashes and targeting Fatah members.

Source: Xinhua