GAZA, Palestine, Nov 18 (NNN-WAFA) – Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas chief, said, the battle with Israel is “not over,” although the violence in the Gaza Strip is over.
Haniyeh made the remarks, after he gave his condolences to the Abu Malhous family, which lost eight of its members in the last round of violence between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“Our victory in the previous round is not counted by the number of rockets fired, nor by the losses sustained, but by the fact that resistance has completely paralysed the enemy (Israel), during the escalation,” he told reporters.
Last week, a new wave of violence broke out between Israel and Gaza’s militant groups, after Israel bombed the house of Baha Abu al-Atta, a senior Islamic Jihad commander, killing him and his wife.
In response, the militant group fired barrages of rockets into Israel, before Israeli war aircraft retaliated, by launching airstrikes on Gaza, killing 35 Palestinians, including women and children.
On Thursday, Egypt brokered a cease-fire between the two sides, which remained fragile, as several more rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel and Israeli war aircraft firing back.
Meanwhile, Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, slammed the earlier remarks by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Israel did not pledge anything in Gaza, in return for the cessation of hostilities.
He warned Netanyahu against manipulating the cease-fire agreement reached last week, under Egyptian and UN auspices.
“The cease-fire agreement provides for a cessation of the criminal Israeli aggression,” al-Batsh noted.– NNN-WAFA