Iran Felicitates Palestinian Resistance Group for Forcing Tel Aviv to Stop Aggression

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif congratulated leader of Palestine’s Hamas resistance movement Ismail Haniyeh for managing to stop Israeli military aggression against Gaza and forcing Tel Aviv to accept Palestinians’ terms of ceasefire.

In a phone conversation with Haniyeh on Monday, Zarif congratulated the leader of Palestine’s Hamas resistance movement on defeating the Israeli regime in the last wave of fighting between the two sides and forcing the regime to accept the terms of the ceasefire.

He lauded the Palestinian nation and its resistance forces for forcing the Israeli regime to submit to its ceasefire terms after the regime launched a two-day assault on the Gaza Strip last week.

In a telephone conversation on Sunday, Zarif had felicitated Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah for clinching victory against Israel, and denounced Tel Aviv’s recent aggression against Gaza.

He condemned the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza, and congratulated the Islamic Jihad on its achievement in imposing its conditions on the Israeli regime for a ceasefire.

On Thursday, the Islamic Jihad movement announced it is holding fire after the Israel accepted its key demands, including stopping targeted killings, as part of an Egypt-mediated truce aimed at ending the military confrontation between the two sides.

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was reached between Israel and Palestinian factions, bringing an end to the Israeli onslaught that left 34 Palestinians martyred and more than 100 others injured.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Islamic Jihad’s Spokesman Musab al-Braim confirmed earlier reports of the truce, noting that the ceasefire came into force at 5:30 am local time (3:30 GMT).

Braim stated that Tel Aviv had agreed to both end its targeted killings of Palestinian resistance fighters and lethal gunfire at weekly Palestinian demonstrations against occupation near the fence separating the Gaza Strip from the Israeli-occupied territories.

“The ceasefire began under Egyptian sponsorship after the Occupation (Israel) submitted to the conditions set by Islamic Jihad on behalf of Palestinian resistance factions,” Braim told Reuters.

The Israeli side confirmed the report, saying, “Quiet will be met with quiet”.

Israel carried out airstrikes on Gaza Tuesday morning with the assassination of Islamic Jihad leader Bahaa Abu al-Atta in a missile attack at his home that also killed his wife and injured his five children and a neighbor. A similar strike also hit the home of another Islamic Jihad commander in Syria on Tuesday, but missed the target.

At least 34 Palestinians were killed and 113 others were injured since Israel unleashed its onslught on Tuesday morning.

Palestinian factions fired barrages of rockets on towns in bordering occupied territories in retaliation, causing damage but no serious injuries, whereas the Tel Aviv regime reacted with several airstrikes on the Gaza Strip during the last couple of days.

A total of 450 rockets are estimated to have been launched from Gaza, reaching as far as Tel Aviv and shutting schools in the occupied territories’ Central and Southern areas.

Gaza has been under Israel’s all-out siege since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008. Tel Aviv seven-week-long war in 2014 and two other military operations over the last six years have caused economic losses close to three times the size of Gaza’s gross domestic product. The latest onslaught claimed the lives of over 2,200 Palestinians and left over half a million more displaced, with another 11,000 injured in the assault. It also severely damaged more than 20,000 homes, 148 schools, 15 hospitals, and 45 clinics. At least 247 factories and 300 commercial centers were rendered inoperable or totally destroyed in the attack.