DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Saturday said that the "practical response to the ongoing Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip is to sever relations with the Zionist enemy and to open the Rafah border terminal with Egypt".

A Hamas statement said that hundreds of Palestinians were the victims of a "Zionist criminal, brutal and savage aggression" in an attempt to subdue the steadfast Gaza with the collusion of official Arab and Palestinian parties and with unlimited support from the American administration.

Hamas said that the aggression will be defeated and the scenes of blood and scattered bodies would not weaken the Palestinian steadfastness.

The Movement strongly denounced the statement of one of the advisors of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas who blamed Hamas for the IOF aggression, and asked Abbas to sack him as a minimum punishment for such a "shameful position".

Hamas finally called on the Arab and Islamic masses to pressure their governments with all peaceful means to support the people of Gaza and to halt the attacks on them.

The AP reported, "Israeli warplanes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security sites in Hamas-ruled Gaza Saturday and early Sunday, killing at least 230 people in one of the Mideast conflict's bloodiest assaults in decades".