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A victory for Palestinian resistance: Iran

Damascus: In Sharm-el Sheikh, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Israel should withdraw from the Gaza Strip if Palestinians stopped firing rockets. “We [European leaders] will go to Israel to tell Israel that we are at its side to assure its right to security but Israel must indicate clearly that if the rocket firing stops, the Israeli army will leave Gaza,” said Mr. Sarkozy.

Iran on Sunday said that Israel’s unilateral ceasefire in Gaza was a victory for the Palestinian resistance. Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki, however, observed that a “mere halt of aerial, naval and ground attacks without the withdrawal of the occupying forces is not enough to stop the clashes.”

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas representative, said “Israel failed in the war, did not achieve even one of its objectives and fled from the Strip. The age of quick, decisive wars, such as Israelis like, has disappeared.”

The drop in fighting allowed Palestinian health workers to visit areas that had experienced 22 days of relentless Israeli bombardment. Palestinian medical staff said that 95 bodies, children included, have so far been pulled out of the northern Gaza rubble. Rescue teams recovered the bodies from the northern Gaza towns of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Zeitoun. It is feared that scores of dead are still buried under accumulation of collapsed houses and devastated structures. A string of mass rallies were held across the globe to protest against Israeli attacks in Gaza. In the Moroccan city of Casablanca, at least 30,000 participated in a rally organised by the Islamic Justice and Development Party and Left organisations. Protests on Sunday were also held in Turkey, Spain and France.

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