Islamic Hamas movement downplayed on Tuesday reports of Israeli plans to re-occupy the Gaza Strip and appoint an Israeli military governor to run the coastal enclave that is now controlled by Hamas.

"It's a meaningless psychological war that aims at reducing the morale of the Palestinian people and their resistance," Hamas spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum, told Xinhua.

The Israeli daily Maariv said Tuesday in a report that Israeli military officials have set a plan to re-occupy the Gaza Strip, which Israel unilaterally left in 2005 after evacuating its 21 settlements there, adding that a military governor would be named to regulate the affairs of the Strip's residents when Israel assumes control of the territory.

The Hamas spokesperson said that these attempts "can never affect the Palestinian people who patiently endured" a three-week Israeli war on Gaza, affirming that his movement is "ready to defy any Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip."

In December 2008, Israel launched a three-week fierce war on the Gaza Strip, which Hamas seized by force in June 2007 after defeating rival Fatah, to stop firing home-made Palestinian rockets on Israeli towns.

The Israeli offensive killed 1,400 Palestinians and injured 5, 400 others, leaving thousands of people homeless after having their houses totally or partially destroyed.