Gaza City - Top Islamic Hamas movement leader Mahmoud al- Zahar said on Monday that his movement would achieve "victory" and "would defeat Israel at the end."

Al-Zahar, in hiding somewhere in the Gaza Strip, spoke for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip ten days ago which has so far left 527 Palestinians killed and 2,500 wounded.

"Victory (against Israel) is nearby and is coming Inshallah (God willing)," he told the pro-Hamas Gaza-based al-Aqsa TV. "The rockets of resistance defeated the Israeli military theory."

Al-Zahar called for an unconditional end of the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip, in addition to an end of the blockade and reopening Gaza Strip border crossings including the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt.

"The choice of resistance will win at the end," said al-Zahar from his hideout.

He also slammed the European position towards the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip as well as the United States for supporting "the Zionists and their crimes committed against our people." Al-Zahar also described the United Nations position as "wrong."

Al-Zahar called on Arabs and Moslems around the world to get out to the streets and demonstrate in favor of the Gaza Strip, adding that "the program of resistance and the Palestinian unity have to be parallel."

"They (Israel) had legitimized killing their children when they killed our children, and legitimized shelling their hospitals after they shelled ours and they legitimized demolishing their synagogues after they destroyed our mosques," said al-Zahar. (dpa)