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At a Rally for Hamas, Celebration and Vows
GAZA — The Hamas movement celebrated the 24th anniversary of its founding on Wednesday by reasserting that it would never recognize Israel nor abandon violence.
Tens of thousands of supporters watched the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, speak from a large outdoor stage in the shape of a ship with a model of Jerusalem’s Al Aksa Mosque. Denying speculation that Hamas would turn its attention to nonviolent resistance, Mr. Haniya said: “Today we say it clearly. Armed resistance and armed struggle are the strategic way to liberate the Palestinian land from the sea to the river.”
He was referring to all of Israel as well as to what his rivals in the Palestinian Authority want to become the state of Palestine — Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He said Hamas had never said that “Palestine is only Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.” He hinted that should those areas be handed over by Israel, Hamas could take a “temporary” respite “without Israel being recognized and without any concession being made.”
Next week, Israel and Hamas are to carry out the second part of a prisoner exchange in which an Israeli soldier was freed for more than 1,000 Palestinians.
Political changes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya augur well for Hamas’s brand of Islamist politics, and the flags of those countries were present on the stage. The flag of Syria, where there is a popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad and where the Hamas exiled leadership remains based, was absent.
Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War
News and Analysis
In a new report, a group of experts warned that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza. In the coming months, the report said, as many as 1.1 million people in the territory could face the severest level of hunger classified by the group.
Israeli negotiators are traveling to Qatar to participate in a new round of talks aimed at achieving a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants, according to officials.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is facing increasing pressure to negotiate a cease-fire, lashed out at Senator Chuck Schumer over his call for elections to be held in Israel when the war winds down.
Read More
A Struggle for Life’s Basics: Most of Gaza’s population fled to the southern territory of Rafah, hoping to escape the war. As they hunt for food and shelter, a potential Israeli invasion has added to their fears.
A Strained Lifeline: The United Arab Emirates has maintained its links to Israel throughout the war in Gaza, but the relationship, built on a U.S.-brokered deal, is under pressure as anger against Israel grows.
Shifting Ties: Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority has long lived apart from the nation’s secular mainstream, but the war in Gaza has both widened that divide and, in some ways, helped to bridge it.
A Winding Path: The U.S. airman who lit himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington to protest the war had left an isolated Christian community for the Air Force before turning to leftist and anarchist activism.
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