By IINA,
Gaza City : Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said the Gaza war with Israel amounted to a “great victory” for the Palestinians. “God has granted us a great victory, not for one faction, or party, or area, but for our entire people,” Haniya, the prime minister appointed by Hamas, said in a televised speech broadcast on Hamas television yesterday. His remarks came less than 24 hours after Israeli halted a massive offensive on Gaza. The democratically-elected Palestinian leader added, “Despite all the wounds, our people didn’t surrender, but demonstrated a legendary perseverance.” “We have stopped the aggression and the enemy has failed to achieve any of its goals. We are stressing the need for the Israeli army withdrawal from the (Gaza) Strip — complete and unconditional withdrawal, and the opening of the crossings, and ending the siege,” he continued.
Yesterday, Hamas and several allied Palestinian factions announced a conditional, one-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel seven days to pull out of the territory. The move, following a meeting of the factions in Damascus, came a day after Israel announced that it was ending its offensive in Gaza after 22 days. “We in the Palestinian resistance movements announce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand that enemy forces withdraw in a week and open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods,” Mousa Abu Marzuk, deputy leader of Hamas’s political bureau, said in Damascus. Besides Hamas, Palestinian factions at the Damascus meeting included Islamic Jihad, Al Nidal, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Al Saeqa.
Israel waged “all-out war” against the Gaza Strip on December 27, in what it described as a bid to stop the Palestinian retaliatory rocket attacks on Israeli towns and to topple the Hamas government. Israeli air, ground and naval operations left at least 1,300 Palestinians dead, including 411 children, and 6,000 others wounded in the besieged territory.