Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Palestinians Celebrate Victory, Death Toll 161 Martyrs, 1,222 Injured, Most Women and Children

November 22, 2012

Israeli war on Gaza: 161 killed, 1222 wounded

[ 21/11/2012 - 09:56 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of 161 citizens and wounded 1222 others, medical sources said on Wednesday.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, the health ministry’s spokesman, said that the latest fatalities included a 14-year-old girl, a child, a teenager, and a number of youths in their twenties.

The PIC reporter in Gaza city said that three members of Asaliya family were killed including a father and his son and daughter.

Haniyya hails truce deal as triumph for Palestinian people

[ 22/11/2012 - 11:34 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Palestinian premier Ismail Haniyya hailed the Egyptian-brokered truce agreement between the Palestinian resistance and Israel and described it as a triumph for the Palestinian people.

"We congratulate our people on this victory after the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance proved their outstanding ability to withstand, create and be patient, while the Umma showed its support for our people and that they were not alone." Haniyya said in a press release on Wednesday evening. "We assert that we are satisfied with this honorable agreement," he added. The premier expressed his appreciation for the Palestinian resistance for the death defiance and the courage they showed as they were defending their people in Gaza.

He also thanked the Egyptian leadership for its active efforts that ended the Israeli aggression against Gaza and for its unlimited support for the Palestinian people.

Mesha'al: The resistance achieved victory over the Israeli regime

 [ 22/11/2012 - 11:15 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)--

Head of Hamas's political bureau Khalid Mesha'al said the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip had achieved victory over the Israeli occupation regime and forced it to yield to its truce terms.

"We have reached understandings brokered by Egypt to have a truce and a ceasefire with specifics points and demands," Mesha'al  told a news conference in the presence of senior leaders from the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza.

He stressed that the Israeli war objectives failed and the Palestinian rocket counterattacks continued until the last moment before the truce started to take effect.

The Hamas official stressed that the Israeli regime tried during its bargaining process to make the Palestinian resistance cease fire first without discussing its demands, but the resistance refused that and insisted on the need for concluding a package deal including its demands. The official added that the resistance insisted on the need for an Israeli pledge to ease its blockade and to stop the killing and assassination of Palestinian figures and civilians in Gaza as well as its military incursions by land, sea and air.

"We feel pain for the fall of victims, but we ended the battle holding our heads high, and this was one round and would be followed by others. Inevitably, Israel is going to lose; every victory always begets another victory and every defeat begets another defeat," he underscored.

Hamas declares victory against Israel's aggression, citizens celebrate

 [ 22/11/2012 - 11:30 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Hamas Movement declared the victory over the Israeli occupation regime in the war and said Israel was forced to accept the truce agreement under the terms set by the Palestinian resistance.

This came in a news conference held on Wednesday evening by Hamas spokesmen Sami Abu Zuhri and Fawzi Barhoum at Shifa hospital in Gaza in the presence of massive crowds of citizens. Spokesman Abu Zuhri said the Palestinian people and their resistance made victory in this war and taught the occupation an unforgettable lesson. Following the news conference, many Palestinians in Gaza took to the streets celebrating the victory on Wednesday night.

Amid celebratory gunfire, Palestinian young men were beeping their car horns and setting off fireworks.

For its part, Hamas information office published the contents of the truce deal that was announced by the Egyptian foreign minister a few hours before it took hold on Wednesday at 09:00 pm according to Cairo local time.

According to this agreement, Israel is to halt all hostilities against Gaza by land, sea and air including incursions and the targeting of people and property. The Palestinian resistance factions are also to halt all hostile activities against Israel including the launch of rocket attacks on Israeli targets. 24 hours after the ceasefire takes effect, the Israeli side will be committed to the opening of all crossings and the easing of restrictions on movement of people and goods from and into the Strip.

Both parties to the agreement gave guarantees to Egypt about their commitment to the truce and its understandings and to refer to it as the sponsor of this deal if there were any remarks or violations.

Fat'h, Hamas urge unity at Gaza rallies Published today

22/11/2012 17:52

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed
Al-Hindi, and senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath celebrate the end of the
war at a Gaza City rally

Nov. 22, 2012. (Reuters/Ahmed Zakot) GAZA CITY (Ma’an) --

In a display of unity, leaders of Hamas, Fat'h and other Palestinian factions on Thursday celebrated the end of the war on Gaza and called for parties to end the split with the West Bank.

Thousands took to the streets of Gaza in joint political rallies marking an end to eight days of deadly fighting, and Fatah supporters marched calling for their faction to end its rivalry with Gaza rulers Hamas.

Fat'h leader Nabil Sha'ath, who came to Gaza on Sunday during the Israeli shelling, told crowds in Gaza City that Israel had failed to isolate them from the West Bank.

“How glad I feel when yellow, green, red and black flags fly together, united by the Palestinian flag. We must all unite and work together,” he said, referring to the motifs of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and leftist factions.

"Today our unity materialised, Hamas and Fatah are one hand, one rifle and one rocket," senior Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya told several thousand people in the main square of Gaza.

Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad al-Hindi said factions should unify behind the resistance movement, hinting at the enduring divisions with Fatah, who espouse non-violent and diplomatic measures against Israel’s occupation.

"We have reached a dead end in the peace process and now we are in the trenches of jihad and resistance," he told the Gaza City rally.

But the Jihad leader too echoed the conciliatory note of the occasion. "Nothing will strengthen the determination of Palestinians more than the Palestinian people themselves, with all of their factions," al-Hindi said.

UN bid

Hamas's Gaza chief and prime minister, Ismail Haniyya, called Fat'h leader President Mahmoud Abbas to brief him on the situation, the official news agency of Abbas’ government said Thursday.

Al-Hindi and Hamas deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament also called Abbas, Wafa reported.

Wafa said all three confirmed their support the president's bid for Palestinian status as a non-member state at the UN, due for a vote next week.

Haniyya's pledge of support for the bid was quickly refuted by Gaza government spokesman Taher al-Nunu, describing Wafa’s report as "completely untrue."

Haniyya’s office said Abbas called the premier and "congratulated him on the victory and extend condolences to the families of martyrs."


Meanwhile, Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa al-Barghouthi, who also came to Gaza during the Israeli bombardment, held a meeting of national and Islamic factions in Gaza City on Thursday.

The meeting, also attended by the head of the Palestinian Arab Front Jamil Shahareh, stressed the importance of completing the "Gaza's victory" by finally realizing the stalled reconciliation deal.

Reconciliation 'most important step' for UN

The Fat'h movement held rallies across the Gaza Strip, including a march by mayors and Fat'h personalities in Gaza City.

"All Palestinians should be united in order to fight the Israeli occupation," senior Fat'h official Yahya Rabah told Ma’an.

Amal Hamad, a member of the Fatah central committee, said implementing national reconciliation was the most important step for the success of the UN bid.

The Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal between his faction and Hamas has repeatedly stalled, after they violently split Palestine into separate governments in 2007.

Fat'h MP Faysal Abu Shahla called on Egyptian authorities to hold a meeting for all Palestinian factions to end the division at Thursday's rally.

Israel agreed a truce deal with Hamas and other Gaza factions on Wednesday with Egyptian mediation.

In preparation for the next round

By Khalid Amayreh

[ 20/11/2012 - 10:05 PM ]

Having satiated its people's thirst with Palestinian blood, Israel has ostensibly agreed to a truce with the Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.

The fragile understanding, however, doesn't mean that Israel is quite content with the huge number of Palestinian civilians murdered at the hands of the Jewish Wehrmacht. Indeed, the cannibalistic Zionist instinct is intrinsically insatiable. This is what we have learned rather too well from Israel ever since the creation of the nefarious entity 64 years ago.

During the latest aggression, the "only democracy in the Middle East" murdered 33 children, 14 women, and more than 60 other innocent civilians. Moreover, as many as 1300 people, the vast majority of whom innocent civilians, including more than 400 children, were injured, many sustaining life-threatening injuries and burns.

Israeli spokespersons appearing on TV screens claim shamelessly that their Nazi-like army doesn't deliberately target innocent civilians. But both man and God know this is an obscene Zionist lie. In the final analysis, Israeli Zionists qualify, par excellence, for the title "God's lying people."

Israel has always been a crime against humanity from day-1 of its existence. It conspicuously lacks the moral credentials that would qualify her to be a normal state with a semblance of a moral government, let alone a moral army. Israeli politicians and military commanders from the lowest-ranking private to the President are certified war criminals with tons of innocent blood on their hands.

Most Israelis would only elect irredeemable criminals and murderers as their political leaders. Being a mass murderer of Arabs and perpetrator of massacres is therefore the main and most important qualification for being worthy of leading Israel.

Unfortunately, these atrocities raise no eyebrows in Washington, Paris, London or even Moscow. Instead, they generate admiration for the Nazis of our time. But the pot can't call the kettle black. The Americans are themselves too criminal and have a long history of genocidal mass murder to object to Jewish Nazism. Didn't the Americans exterminate 10-15 million Native Americans and called the genocide manifest destiny?

Interestingly, the same thing applies to the French, the British and the Russians as well.

Another aspect of the obscene western discourse vis-à-vis the latest conflict is the mendacious claim that it was Hamas that provoked Israel to slaughter Palestinian civilians. Well, has the western media so easily forgotten that Israel herself is an exotic plant that is strange to the Middle East?

After all, it was Jewish invaders, supported by western countries that came from Eastern Europe, hijacked Palestine, terrorized and massacred its people, destroyed their homes, and expelled them to the four winds. Yet, these Zionists now have the audacity and shamelessness to accuse their victims of terror and violence.

Moral victory

We Palestinians are not conceited and don't give in to national hubris. We know Israel is a regional superpower which also controls rather tightly the government of the United States. We also know that American and European political whores grovel at Israel's feet, looking for a certificate of good conduct from the evil Jewish golem.

But we also realize and know deep in our hearts that Israel is a morally bankrupt state that thrives on murder and oppression. Needless to say, a state as such, which has dishonesty as its shield, oppression as its policy and murder as its modus operandi, will not live long.

Indeed, every child Israel murders and every civilian home Israeli war-planes destroy will be a curse that would accelerate and expedite Israel's ultimate demise.

Israel, thanks to its immense firepower, may have succeeded in killing so many innocent Palestinians. Israel, like Nazi Germany, has always done that.

But the Palestinian resistance has remained largely intact and is retaining the ability to keep Israel and its settlers, who live on land that belongs to another people, in a state of existential anxiety.

The Palestinian resistance will ultimately learn the right lesson from this round of Israeli aggression. It is hoped that the resistance will be much more powerful when Israel decides to wage another round of aggression on the Palestinians.

Palestinians don't fire rockets on Israel out of a feeling of insolence, or arrogance or even pugnacity and bellicosity. They fire the poor-man's weapons in the hope of deterring a manifestly murderous enemy, which also happens to be their tormentor and occupier of their ancestral homeland, from slaughtering their children. And the slaughter of their children is too realistic to be propaganda. It just transcends reality.

Indeed when there are five or six killed on one side while thousands of casualties occur on the other side; we are not talking about war, but rather about a massacre.

Israel may continue to dwell in her insolence and megalomania, but eventually those who have the higher moral ground will prevail. Israel is doomed to an early demise, thanks to her evilness and iniquity.