By Press TV Staff Writer
Palestinian resistance group Hamas has confirmed a four-day truce deal with the Israeli regime in the besieged Gaza Strip, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, which is subject to extension.
Under the deal, Hamas will release 50 Israeli prisoners of war held since October 7 in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children who have been languishing in Israeli jails for years.
The deal will also facilitate the entry of humanitarian, medical and fuel trucks to the besieged territory and halt the Israeli occupying regime’s indiscriminate, murderous attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli drones hovering in the skies of Gaza will also stop for four days, as per the deal. In northern Gaza, they must stop for at least six hours a day.
The regime will also not be arresting or attacking anyone “in all areas of the Gaza Strip” these days.
The statement released by Hamas stressed that the terms of the ceasefire deal are based on “the vision of the resistance and its principles,” adding that talks were held “from a position of steadfastness and strength in the field, despite the occupation’s attempts to prolong and procrastinate the negotiations.”
While Hamas has declared its commitment to the deal, it has also warned that its hands “remain on the trigger” in case the Tel Aviv regime breaches the deal or backtracks on its commitments.
“While we announce the arrival of a pause of fighting agreement, we affirm that our hands will remain on the trigger, and our victorious brigades will remain on the lookout to defend our people and defeat the occupation and its aggression,” the Gaza-based resistance group said.
“Inspired by our responsibility towards our patient and determined Palestinian people, and our tireless endeavor to support the steadfastness of our heroic people in the dignified Gaza Strip, and to provide relief and treat their wounds, and in our work to consolidate the will of our victorious resistance on October 7 in the face of the Zionist enemy,” it hastened to add.
The movement assured Palestinians that they will “remain loyal to their blood, their sacrifices, their patience, their steadfastness, and their aspirations for liberation and freedom, the restoration of rights, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
There were about 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons before the events of October 7. In the last seven weeks, 3,000 more Palestinians have been arrested in random raids across the occupied West Bank.
The deal was finalized days after the policy of procrastination adopted by the Israeli regime as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly stalling attempts to clinch the temporary agreement.
As expected, the right-wing Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has been campaigning for war, couldn’t hide his frustration after the deal was clinched, saying it sets a “dangerous precedent”.
“Hamas wanted this time-out more than anything,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “The outline is a dangerous precedent, which changes the equation and may bring more events.”
The deal, according to experts, represents a major victory for the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas, which came seven weeks after the unprecedented Al-Aqsa Storm (or Al-Aqsa Flood) operation.
The operation, which took the regime and its Western backers by complete surprise, established the strategic and military superiority of the resistance and debunked the invincibility myth of the regime.
The fact that the deal was reached on the terms of the Palestinian resistance and following marathon negotiations in which the resistance officials discussed issues from the position of strength proves that the four-day truce deal is a triumph for both the Palestinian resistance and the Axis of Resistance.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, in a statement posted on Telegram, made it clear that Israeli soldiers will not be freed until “all our prisoners are liberated from enemy prisons”.
“We emphasize our continued confrontation of aggression, at all field and political levels, in order to thwart all the goals of this aggression,” the resistance group stated.
It shows that both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are not going to be blackmailed into submission but will continue to pressure the Israeli regime into accepting the demands of the resistance.
This time it is the Palestinian resistance that will speak and the occupying regime will have to listen.
Hours after the deal was reached, Leader of the Islamic Resistance Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, speaking at an event in Tehran, said the Israeli regime was “knocked out” by the Palestinian resistance.
“If I am going to offer you a breakdown of the recent developments, it goes as the Zionist regime was knocked out in Al-Aqsa Storm,” the Leader told a gathering of Iranian Olympic athletes.
“Hamas, not as a government and country with ample facilities, but as a resistance group, managed to deal a knockout blow to the usurping Zionists with all those facilities.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on a visit to Lebanon, said the time is not on the side of the Israeli regime following six or seven weeks of indomitable resistance by Palestinians.
The resistance displayed by Gaza proved that America and the Israeli regime were the definitive losers, he stressed, adding that Palestinians will determine the future of Gaza and Palestine.
“We have heard from the resistance leaders in the region that their will hands remain on the trigger until the full rights of Palestinians are achieved and the struggle against the occupation ends,” he said.
Meanwhile, the truce deal announced on Wednesday has been welcomed by many countries.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing hopes the deal “will help alleviate the plight of the humanitarian crisis, promote the de-escalation of conflicts, and ease tensions”.
Russia described the deal as the “first good news for a long time”, batting for “humanitarian pauses.”
Experts believe that the Israeli regime was forced to accept the truce deal amid growing public opinion against it across the world and the Palestinian resistance movement’s fatal blows against the regime.
Despite the internal opposition, Netanyahu had to concede to save his skin, but the events that have unfolded since October indicate that the occupying regime is already on the brink.
