Hamas: Resistance Forces Not To Abandon Legitimate Demands Before Truce

Tehran, July 27, IRNA – A top Hamas official announcing that official decision on acceptance of truce in Gaza has not been declared yet, said that despite widespread destruction and huge loss of life there, retreating from legitimate demands in not possible before truce. ˈHamas legitimate demands, atop which end of the siege of Gaza, will have to be met before beginning of any talks on a ceasefire with Israel,ˈ said Ihab al-Qeez in an interview with Lebanonˈs Al Mayadin news agency. He reiterated that some Arab countries are today accomplices of Israel in an effort to disarm the Palestinian resistance groups. Al-Qees further stressed that resistance is not exclusively the approach of the Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement today, as the whole Palestinian nation and many Arab nations approve of it today. ˈIt is the prestigious stands of the Palestinian nation that blows the spirit of hope for victory in the souls of the Palestinian people today,ˈ he stressed. ˈEgypt must heed its duty about the Palestinian nation and open the passages for transferring the medical and necessary aids into Gaza Strip,ˈ said al-Qees. He said that the reason why the usurper forces have not managed to enter the Gaza Strip yet and have remained at the borders of that region is the brave resistance of Palestinian forces, stressing, ˈWe will continue resistance against the occupiers of our motherland till its full liberation from occupation.ˈ The Palestinian resistance groups and the Zionist regime accepted to observe a twelve-hour truce as on Saturday morning. Families across the Gaza Strip emerged from shelters and returned to their homes during a 12-hour cease-fire on Saturday to survey the damage to their neighborhoods, collect belongings and help dig bodies from the rubble. The death toll in Gaza has passed 1,000, Palestinian medical officials say, 19 days after Israel launched an offensive against the civilians in the worldsˈ most tensely populate patch of land, the Gaza Strip. Hamas said it fired five rockets at Israel late Saturday after rejecting Israelˈs offer to extend a 12-hour humanitarian cease-fire by four hours, casting new doubt on international efforts to broker an end to 19 days of fighting. Just hours after the Israeli military rejected pleas from US Secretary of State Kerry for a seven-day truce and threatened to ramp up the ground war, it did an about-face and agreed to a 12-hour lull in the fighting. The break began at 8 a.m. Saturday morning./end