Haniyeh: Gaza Protests Achieved Goal as They Drew Attention to the Plight in Holy Lands

The head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haniyeh said Monday that the protests Palestinians are staging have achieved strategic goals such as bringing back the Palestinian issue to the international arena.

“But we are only at the beginning,” Haniyeh added. “There are people who want to renounce Gaza, but Gaza won’t renounce the West Bank, Al-Quds and the rest of Palestine’s land.”

“Palestine and Al-Quds belong to us,” Haniyeh declared, urging Palestinians to preserve the “peacefulness” of the protests. “We will break the walls of the blockade, remove the occupation entity and return to all of Palestine.”

Haniyeh was speaking during a ceremony to inaugurate the “Monument of Return,” east of Gaza City.

Haniyeh said that “although we are in the second week of the March of Return, this peaceful, civilized, and popular march has achieved important goals, and we are still in the beginning.”

These demonstrations, he added, “will continue day after day and Friday after Friday until May 15.”

On March 30, Palestinians marched to the fence separating Gaza from the occupied territories at the start of a six-week protest, dubbed “The Great March of Return,” demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.