Al-Ciaeda deputy urges Hamas to fight on

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Muslims to press ahead with fighting "crusaders".

King David Hotel Curtains?

The terrorist organisation uses the term to denote the West and in a videotape posted on Islamist websites, al-Zawahiri slams Israel for its military assault on Gaza.

He urged Hamas not to accept a truce to end fighting in the Gaza Strip, saying: "Israel's Arab aides are attempting to impose on the people of Gaza a truce which will stop their Jihad in exchange for the lifting of the embargo (on the Gaza Strip).

"But I affirm to our brothers and kinsfolk in Gaza that the Jihad to liberate Palestine and all homelands of Islam mustn't cease, and if the field tightens in one place, it widens in other places, and crusader and Jewish targets are spread all over the world, and it is not for the enemy to impose on us the field, place, time and way in which we fight him."

He continued: "So our brothers the Mujahideen in Gaza mustn't despair if they are constrained, for the entire world is our field against the targets of the Zionist Crusade, with Allah's help and power." ITN