Arms Will Flow To Gaza Despite Security - Hamas

Those who think sea, air or satellite monitoring can detect weapons flow through tunnels `are deluded`, he added.

Security measures aimed at stopping Palestinian groups from rearming in Gaza will not stop the flow of weapons into the enclave, a senior Hamas official said on Sunday. Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, said Palestinian fighters had begun to restore their arsenal after a ceasefire halted Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"We will continue to get weapons into Gaza and the (West) Bank. Let nobody think we will surrender to measures," he said during a speech in Beirut.

"Perhaps matters will get more difficult, but we are ready to ride out any difficulty ... so that the resistance continues," he said.

Those who think sea, air or satellite monitoring can detect weapons flow through tunnels "are deluded", he added.

Israel has said Hamas used tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to bring weapons into the enclave, where its offensive killed 1,300 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,000 others.

Thirteen Israelis were killed: 10 soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire. Israel's stated aim was to stop Palestinian rocket fire into the south of the country.

Israel said it halted the fighting after securing commitments from the United States, European powers and Egypt to crack down on the flow of arms to the Hamas-ruled enclave.

France said on Friday it would send a frigate to patrol international waters off the coast of the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to consolidate the ceasefire by preventing arms trafficking by sea.

"I reassure you that from the first day of the ceasefire the resistance began to restore what it had lost and to develop what it (already) had," Hamdan added.