Gaza  - Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, radiated defiance on Wednesday night when he made his first televised speech after days of intense Israeli air raids on the salient.

Outwardly, Hamas, which has administered the Strip since June 2007, exudes confidence, saying that despite the Israeli attacks, it is still unbroken. The organization's military capability is more or less intact and its militants not only continue to fire missiles, but have been targeting cities deep inside Israel, which previously had not been hit.

Yet, on another level, Hamas' administrative ability has been blunted by the relentless airstrikes, which began Saturday in response to massive rocket fire from the salient. So far, the Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 412 people and injured around 2,000.

Virtually all its offices, security installation and police headquarters in the Strip have been reduced to rubble. Its leaders have gone underground; unable to be with their families and unable to even communicate in case their whereabouts are traced and they are targeted by the Israelis.

Haniya made repeated use of the word "victory" in his speech on Wednesday night, but the 45-year-old deposed Palestinian prime minister was engaged in a verbal balancing act.

On the one hand, he promised that "we will win." But, at the same time, he called for an end to the fighting.

Hamas' conditions for ending the violence, as outlined on Wednesday night, call for Israel to unconditionally cease aggression and open the crossing points into the beleaguered enclave. However, those demands are unlikely to make an impression on any Israeli leader.

On Thursday, the chief Israeli military spokesman said the aim of the offensive is to create a deterrent that will seriously harm Hamas' motivation to fire more rockets in the future.

Whether the Israelis have so far succeeded in this is debatable.

No matter how badly Hamas is weakened by the Israeli offensive, it is still likely to claim victory. It is even more likely to do so if it is still in a position to launch its rockets after the current fighting ends.

"You cannot destroy the movement, the movement lives in the hearts and minds of its supporters," one Gaza resident said. The Israeli airstrikes have also resulted in Hamas increasing its popularity throughout the Islamic world.

Hamas' current popularity in the Strip, however, is open to debate. Those who supported the Islamist group before the Israeli airstrikes still do so. And those who supported its rival, the secular Fatah movement, have also likely not changed their allegiance.

But the great mass of politically unaffiliated Palestinians between these two extremes are not thinking about who to blame for the carnage. Rather, they are focused on how to survive. At least at present. Once the fighting stops and they have time for reflection, their views may be crucial for Hamas' political survival.

Elections are due in the Palestinian territories in 2010. Those in the Gaza Strip who are not committed Hamas members, but whose votes gave the organization its victory in the 2006 elections, are not likely to do so again. That could spell the possible end of a Hamas government.

With this in mind, Hamas is desperate to snatch some sort of achievement from the Israeli assault to justify the battering the Gaza Strip has received. (dpa)