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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210526-a-morning-of-victory-in-jerusalem/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210526-a-morning-of-victory-in-jerusalem/</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">A morning of victory in Jerusalem</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Asa Winstanley - May 26, 2021<br></div></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content"> <p>Palestine
awoke last Friday morning to a new reality. The death and destruction
Israel had been visiting upon Gaza came to an end with a 2am ceasefire.
More than 230 Palestinians, including 64 children, had been killed by
Israel in the Gaza Strip in the preceding eleven days.</p> <p>The new
turn of events, though, was this: the ceasefire was effectively imposed
on Israel by the Palestinians themselves, specifically by the resistance
factions. The military wing of Hamas and the other armed resistance
groups in Gaza worked together under a unified command and showed their
massively increased capabilities compared with the previous major
Israeli offensive against on Gaza in the summer of 2014.</p> <p>Even in
that assault, the resistance had been serious enough to prevent the
Israelis from executing a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza. Israeli
troops did not get very far into the Strip in 2014 before the
Palestinian resistance fought them off. They were forced to retreat and
began instead to destroy entire neighbourhoods from the air.</p> <p>Israel's
2021 eleven-day war was no less barbaric than the occupation state's
51-day war seven years ago. In addition to those killed and injured,
tens of thousands of Palestinians are now homeless. Entire apartment
blocks were destroyed by the Israeli land, sea and air bombardment.</p> <p>There
is now a new calculation that Israel has to make due to the increased
capabilities of the armed resistance. Palestinian fighters have proven
their ability to hit targets all over occupied historic Palestine. No
Israeli town or city is safe.</p> <p>Israel's "Iron Dome" missile
defence system proved once again to be a paper tiger. Massive volleys of
resistance rockets – combined with decoy and smart targeting strategies
– totally overwhelmed the system, making it of little use. After the
ceasefire, resistance spokespeople said that they had barely scratched
the surface of their arsenal, and that they still have enough munitions
left to carry on responding to Israeli bombs for another six months.</p> <p><strong>READ: <a title="Palestine triumphs" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210526-palestine-triumphs/">Palestine triumphs</a></strong></p> <p>The
Israeli leadership now knows that, the next time it wants to launch
another brutal war of aggression against Gaza, it will have to factor in
the reality that millions of citizens will be forced to retreat to bomb
shelters; that Israel's main international airport will be shut down
again; and that the Israeli economy will lose billions once more.</p> <p>More
than that, the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza proved that they
can and will respond to Israeli aggression anywhere in occupied
Palestine, not only against the coastal territory. The first Hamas
rocket volley was launched on 10 May, remember, in response to Israeli
attacks and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem.</p> <p>Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh highlighted this point <a href="https://twitter.com/PressTV/status/1395720829711835137" target="_blank">in a televised speech</a>
after the ceasefire came into effect. The movement's armed wing had
made similar statements all along. "The enemy has witnessed and
understood that when we said, 'Do not play with fire, remove your hands
from Al-Aqsa Mosque,' we knew what we were saying," explained Haniyeh.</p> <div id="gmail-attachment_470160" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210516-palestinians-have-a-right-to-defend-themselves/img_2667/" rel="attachment wp-att-470160"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_2667-scaled.jpg?fit=933%2C579&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Israel is carrying out war crimes against worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="281">
</a></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Israel is carrying out war crimes against worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>Israel
was given a two-hour ultimatum: end your attacks against Palestinian
worshippers in Jerusalem or we will start to return fire. The Israelis
didn't take the warning seriously and ignored it, so Hamas opened fire.</p> <p>Contrary
to Israeli propaganda that Palestinian fighters using civilians as
"human shields", Haniyeh committed the resistance to the opposite: the
fighters were clearly the protectors of the people of occupied
Palestine.</p> <p>"This is the resistance of the people of Palestine
today," said the former Palestinian prime minister, naming towns and
cities all over Palestine, including some in the territories occupied in
1948 that today form the state of Israel. The resistance groups, he
continued, "tell our people that we will be your shield and we will be
your sword. Gaza held that sword very strongly… it hit the pillars of
the enemy."</p> <p>Haniyeh made a point to thank those few states that
have directly supported Palestinian fighters: "We also have the duty to
thank those who have given arms and money to the resistance: the
Islamic Republic of Iran, which has… given with all its support to its
resistance."</p> <p>He also thanked Qatar and Egypt for what he said was
diplomatic support. Egypt brokered the ceasefire between the
Palestinian armed factions and Israel. Qatar is the gulf state where
Haniyeh now lives.</p> <p>Notable
by its absence from Haniyeh's speech was any mention of Syria, which
has also been known to support and supply Palestinian resistance
factions. There was a breach between Syria and Hamas after the war broke
out there in 2011; the Hamas leadership based in Damascus came down on
the anti-government side and were obliged to leave the country.
Nevertheless, a senior Hamas official, its spokesman in Beirut <a href="https://twitter.com/AlMayadeenNews/status/1395469507121004545" target="_blank">Osama Hamdan</a> called the other day for a return to normal relations with the Syrian government.</p> <p>Completely
silent during this period has been Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud
Abbas. Protesters in Jerusalem on the morning of victory chanted
slogans against him, denouncing him as a collaborator. Abbas has long
been deeply unpopular with most Palestinians, due mostly to his only
iron policy: that of "security coordination" with Israel. With calls for
him to step down before he is removed from office, his days as
"president" could be numbered. The morning of victory in Jerusalem could
have far-reaching repercussions.</p> <p>The views expressed in this
article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the
editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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