Alwaght- Leader of Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, says 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,” Ismail Haniyeh Hamas political bureau chief said on Monday adding that, “there are people who want to renounce Gaza, but Gaza won’t renounce the West Bank, al-Quds (Jerusalem) 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.”
Reiterating continued resistance, Haniyeh added that, “these demonstrations will continue day after day and Friday after Friday until May 15.”
On Friday 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.
The demonstrations turned violent after Israeli forces used tear gas and live fire against the peaceful protesters killing nearly two dozen protestors and injuring hundreds. A similar situation unfolded on Friday when Israeli regime forces shot and killed over ten protestors raising the death toll over a period of one week to at least 32 civilians killed including children.
Israel has tightened military presence on the Gaza fence, deploying armored vehicles, back-up special forces and snipers. The regime’s forces have also the permission to open fire on unnamed Gazans.
The Return rallies culminate on May 15, the day Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out of their homes in 1948 and Israel was created.
