War-weary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday mourned the head of the political wing of the terrorist group Hamas, Ismail Hanija, who was the target of an attack in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday night. A number of Palestinians cited by the AP agency expressed the view that Haniyeh’s death will complicate efforts to conclude a ceasefire agreement. Hamas blames Israel for the attack.
Gaza/Ramallah (West Bank)
16:39 July 31, 2024 Share on Facebook
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Former head of the political wing of the terrorist group Hamas Ismáíl Haníja | Photo: Suhaib Salem | Source: Reuters
“This guy could have signed a prisoner exchange agreement with the Israelis,” said Salih Shannar, who had to leave his home in the northern Gaza Strip because of the war. “Why did they kill him? They killed peace, not Ismail Hanija,” he added.
Núr Abusalamová, who was also displaced as a result of the conflict, believes that Israel does not want to end the war and does not stand for peace in the Middle East. “With the assassination of Hanija, they are destroying everything,” she said.
7:33
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Hundreds of Palestinians marched through Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to protest the killing of Haniyeh. Many carried green Hamas flags and chanted “we want the Qassam Brigades”, referring to the group’s military wing.
Public expressions of support for Hamas are rare in Ramallah. Ramallah is the capital of the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, rules. Abbas called Haniya’s killing a “cowardly murder” and called on Palestinians to “stand tall and show unity, patience and stability in the face of Israeli occupation.”
Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip after elections in January 2006 in which it won 44 percent of the vote. The Fatah party, led by Mahmoud Abbas, who has been the head of the Palestinian Authority since 2005, finished second only with 41 percent of the vote.
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After these elections, which were the last Palestinian parliamentary elections to date, clashes broke out between Fatah and Hamas, which then took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, creating its own administrative bodies including ministries. The headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, which Abbas leads, is the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 war. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to destroy Hamas, which rules there, after a cross-border terror attack on October 7 in which Palestinian militants killed 1,200 people on the Israeli border. Another 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas and its allies to the Gaza Strip.
Over a hundred of them were released by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel during the only truce so far, which lasted only a week at the end of November. Israeli strikes have killed at least 39,445 Palestinians since the start of the war, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
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