Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called for Jihad over the Israeli offensive in Gaza in a new 22-minute audio that appeared on Islamist websites on Wednesday, the US-based IntelCenter monitoring service reported.
The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified.
"God has bestowen us with the patience to continue the path of Jihad for another seven years, and seven and seven years," bin Laden said in the tape that was dated in the current Islamic month.
Bin Laden also condemns Arab governments for preventing their people from action to "liberate Palestine". The al-Qaeda chief also discussed outgoing US President George W Bush's administration and president-elect Barack Obama.
The tape was titled "A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression against Gaza". "The question is , can America continue its war with us for several more decades to come?
Reports and evidence would suggest otherwise," he said.
The Palestinian death toll from the 19-day-old Israeli offensive against the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza has risen to about 1,000. Israel says 13 Israelis have been killed.
The Saudi-born terrorist said the global financial crisis had exposed the waning influence of the United States in world affairs and would in turn weaken its ally Israel.
More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, his second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri and their allies since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Last week Zawahri, in an Internet message, called on Muslims to strike Western and Israeli targets around the world over Israel's Gaza raids.
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