(Gaza) Hamas claimed its “victory” in its armed confrontation with Israel, a senior Hamas official told thousands of people who gathered on Friday for cheerful demonstrations in Gaza City, after the ceasefire came into effect. The Hebrew State.
“This is the euphoria of victory,” said Khalil al-Hayya, the second man in the political bureau of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during a speech to the cheering protesters, vowing to “rebuild” the homes destroyed by the Israeli raids.
Through Egyptian mediation, Israel and Hamas agreed Thursday evening to a ceasefire, which came into effect on Friday, to end more than ten days of clashes that left at least 232 people dead on the Palestinian side, including 65 children and many Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters. , And 12 dead in Israel – including a six-year-old girl, a 16-year-old girl, and a soldier
Hostilities began on May 10 with rockets fired from Hamas towards Israel “in solidarity” with hundreds of Palestinians injured in clashes with the Israeli police at the mosque compound in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam.
After these first rocket attacks, Israel launched an operation aimed at “reducing” Hamas’s military capabilities by stepping up air strikes against this small area of two million people that has been under Israeli siege for nearly fifteen years.
For their part, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired more than 4,300 rockets at Israel, firing an unmatched intensity against the Jewish state that possesses an anti-missile shield that made it possible to intercept 90% of these missiles.
If the Israeli army has reduced Hamas’s military capabilities, by killing a number of leaders working in its technical and intelligence branches, and by destroying its infrastructure, then the armed movement has symbolically succeeded, according to analysts, in replacing the conflict. Heart of the news.