The Islamic Hamas movement would never yield to Israel, vowed former Palestinian prime minister of Hamas Ismail Haneya on Saturday.

Haneya voiced the stance in a letter to the Palestinian people, which was carried by a pro-Hamas website, after Israel launched air strikes earlier in the day that killed more than 200 Gazans.

"We will not leave our land, we will not raise white flags and we will not kneel except before God," Haneya was quoted as saying in the letter.

According to the report, Haneya strongly condemned the Israeli military operation, saying that "Gaza today was decorated by blood" which could be seen every street.

Gaza will never surrender though there can be more martyrs and more wounded, vowed the Hamas leader.

Israel launched air strikes against the Gaza Strip from 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT), hitting more than 30 targets, most of them security compounds run by the Islamic Hamas movement.

At least 200 Palestinians were killed and 750 others wounded in a series of rapid and intensive Israeli air strikes, Palestinian officials said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2008)