In a televised speech on Wednesday, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, emphasized that the Zionist enemy in the Gaza Strip has committed the most brutal crimes, genocide, and displacement of Palestinians in the history of mankind.
“We tell the Zionists and Americans that what you failed to achieve on the battlefield, you will not achieve through political machinations,” he said.
He asked the Arab countries to stop the rampage of the Zionist enemy and not allow it to attack Rafah.
Haniyeh also called on Palestinians in holy Al-Quds and the West Bank to march to Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray on the first day of Ramadan on March 10, raising the stakes in the indirect talks for a truce deal to have come into force by then.
Haniyeh also called on the self-styled Axis of Resistance – allies of Iran consisting of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansarullah, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – as well as Arab states, to step up their support for the Palestinians in Gaza.
“It is the duty of the Arab and Islamic nations to take the initiative to break the starvation conspiracy in Gaza”, Haniyeh said, referring to what Palestinians say appears to be a deliberate policy by Israel to deny them food.
Israel says its blockade on Gaza is essential to destroy Hamas, which it sees as an existential threat since the militants’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, but that it is allowing in aid, trading blame with aid agencies for shortfalls they say have led to acute hunger.
MNA/6040250/PR
