GAZA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Hamas on Tuesday downplayed the threat of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a large-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip as "useless."
Netanyahu's threat to wage a war against Gaza "is empty of its content and comes in the frame of his election campaign," said Abdulatif al-Qanoua, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a press statement.
"Netanyahu will certainly lose any new war that will be waged against Gaza, similar to the previous ones," al-Qanoua warned.
Our "armed resistance now is bigger than before and is able to foil any new plans," he added.
On Sunday, Netanyahu threatened a large-scale Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip against the Hamas-led militant groups.
Earlier in the day, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted a well-informed Hamas source as saying the movement had sent the last warning to Israel about its commitment to implement the Egypt-brokered cease-fire deal.
"If the occupier (Israel) doesn't allow the transfer of the Qatari funds and doesn't increase electricity until the end of this week, the situation will go toward escalation in the Gaza Strip," the source told the Lebanese paper.
