Former Hamas chief calls for day of jihad on Friday

London, Oct 12

A former Hamas chief has called for protests across the Muslim world on Friday in support of the Palestinians, urging the people of the neighbouring countries to join the fight against Israel, a media report said.

"[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday," said Khaled Meshaal, who currently heads Hamas' diaspora office, Daily Mail reported.

Meshaal, who is based out of Qatar, said the governments and the people of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt have a bigger duty to support the Palestinians, the report said.

'Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan... This is a moment of truth and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility," Meshaal said in a recorded statement. adding, "To all scholars who teach jihad... to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application (of theories)."

Jordan and Lebanon are home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees, Daily Mail reported..

Meshaal's call for a Friday 13th uprising was reiterated by Hamas itself, according to the Israeli-run, Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

MEMRI said that Hamas has urged its supporters in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel to rise up in what he called 'the Al-Aqsa Flood' - echoing what the secretive Palestinian mastermind Mohammed Deif calls the attack he launched on Saturday against Israel, Daily Mail reported.

The phrase Israel's most wanted man used in an audio tape broadcast as Hamas fired thousands of rockets out of the Gaza Strip over the weekend signalled that the attack was their payback for Israeli raids at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque.