Gazans Empowered By Latest Truce, Believe Latest Fight Is ‘The First Nail In The Coffin Of Israel’

Zechariah 12:2-3a, 9, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces … It shall be in that day [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

By Tobias Buck – “When they finally emerged from their houses after eight days of Israeli bombardment, the people of Gaza seemed to have only one desire: to satisfy their craving for sugar.

Sweet shops and pastry makers were over-run with customers on Thursday morning, the day after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire entered into effect.

‘People rushed to the shop as soon as it opened,’ said Abu Wassim, the owner of Alqadi Famous Sweets in Jabalya. His store sold four times more baklava, knaffeh and other sugary delights than on normal days. ‘In your country, when you celebrate a victory, you open a bottle of alcohol,’ he said. ‘Here, we go and buy sweets.’

In Gaza, they have been treating the end of the latest bloody clash between Israel and Hamas as a Palestinian victory. Of that they have no doubt.

On Wednesday night, thousands celebrated spontaneously in the streets, minutes after the ceasefire announcement. On Thursday, declared a national holiday by the Gaza authorities, there were victory parades and rallies. On Friday, the midday prayers were dominated by declarations of victory, with some preachers drawing a line between the latest conflict and the Prophet Mohammed’s victory over the infidels.

The sense of triumph and elation came despite the loss of 162 Palestinian lives, the wounding of more than 1,000 and the destruction of hundreds of buildings.

In conventional terms, Hamas’s military achievements were negligible: As in the past, Gaza-based militants fired barrages of rockets and missiles at Israel, but only few reached their intended targets. Six Israelis were killed by Palestinian fire – a relatively low figure given the intensity of the missile fire from Gaza.

Yet Hamas leaders and ordinary Gazans alike insist that this conflict felt very different from Israel’s military onslaught four years ago.

Not only did Israel this time stop short of a ground invasion, but the rocket squads of Gaza managed to fire missiles at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the commercial and political centres of Israel. None of the missiles did any damage. What mattered, however, was the sight of Israelis running for the bomb shelters…

As he shuffled away, a Hamas sheikh began his eulogy of Mohammed Jamal. He praised his martyrdom, saying the dead man and his family would be guaranteed a place in heaven. And the latest clash with Hamas’s enemy had been a great victory, he said, ‘the first nail in the coffin of Israel’.” Read more.