The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has warned that Israel is fabricating pretexts to launch a fresh military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Israel recently accused Hamas of having test-fired a long-range missile that could reach targets in Israel.

Hamas’ spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, said in a written statement that the Israeli claim "shows Israel’s intentions to escalate aggressive actions against the Gaza Strip."

"Such threats are coming under the title of incitement and creating pretexts in order to commit more new crimes against Gaza and attempt to cover over the previous crimes that were committed during the last war," DPA quoted Barhoum as saying on Saturday.

"These claims are part of the Israeli lies to justify a new aggression on the Gaza Strip," he added.

The latest Israeli military offensive into the impoverished Palestinian sliver, dubbed Operation Cast Lead, claimed the lives of more than 1500 people and injured many others. According to UN figures a large number of the victims were civilians including women and children.

(Press TV)