Israeli leader claims win in Gaza

No concessions allowed, Hamas ‘hit hard,’ Netanyahu says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (from left), Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz appear at a news conference Wednesday in Jerusalem during which Netanyahu declared victory in the recent fighting in Gaza, saying “Hamas was hit hard” while Israel didn’t agree to any of Hamas’ demands. In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman claimed victory, saying the militant Palestinian group “forced the enemy to retreat.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (from left), Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz appear at a news conference Wednesday in Jerusalem during which Netanyahu declared victory in the recent fighting in Gaza, saying “Hamas was hit hard” while Israel didn’t agree to any of Hamas’ demands. In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman claimed victory, saying the militant Palestinian group “forced the enemy to retreat.”

JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister declared victory Wednesday in the recent war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying the military campaign had dealt a heavy blow and a cease-fire deal gave no concessions to the Islamic militant group.

Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a prime-time address on national television after hard-liners in his governing coalition, as well as residents of rocket-scarred southern Israel, said the war was a failure because it did not halt Hamas' rocket attacks or oust the group from power.

"Hamas was hit hard," Netanyahu said, adding that Israel "didn't agree to accept any of Hamas' demands" under an Egyptian-brokered deal to end the fighting.

Hamas also declared victory, even though it had little to show for a war that killed 2,143 Palestinians, wounded more than 11,000 and left some 100,000 homeless, according to Palestinian health officials and United Nations figures. On the Israeli side, 70 people were killed, all but six soldiers.

In Gaza, masked militants gathered on the rubble of destroyed homes in the Shijaiyah neighborhood, site of some of the heaviest fighting. The men displayed heavy machine guns, mortar shells, rockets and anti-tank missiles.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas military wing, stood over an Israeli flag as he addressed the crowd.

photo

AP

A Palestinian fighter stands near the rubble of destroyed houses as Hamas declared victory in the fight with Israel during a celebration Wednesday in a Gaza Strip neighborhood.

"Gaza achieved victory because it has done what major armies failed to do. It forced the enemy to retreat," he said. "We must know that no voice is louder than the voice of the resistance."

The cease-fire delivered an immediate halt in the fighting and has promised an easing of Israel's blockade of Gaza to allow humanitarian aid and construction goods to enter for the rebuilding of the territory. All goods are to go in under international supervision.

But Hamas' key demands are to be addressed only in a future round of talks expected next month in Cairo. Hamas is seeking a complete end to the Israeli blockade, including the reopening of Gaza's seaport and airport. It also wants Egypt to reopen its Rafah border crossing, the territory's main gateway to the outside world. Israel, meanwhile, wants Hamas to be disarmed.

Netanyahu said Israel "will not tolerate" any more rocket fire, and if the attacks resume, "we will respond even harder."

Israel carried out thousands of airstrikes and other attacks on Hamas targets during the war. The attacks destroyed or damaged thousands of buildings, leaving an estimated 100,000 people in Gaza homeless.

Addressing the future of Gaza, Netanyahu said that should Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "choose peace," he would be happy for the Palestinian leader to regain control of the coastal enclave, which the Islamic militant group Hamas has ruled since it routed Abbas' forces in 2007.

Netanyahu indicated that as long as Hamas was in power, reaching a negotiated solution to the conflict with the Palestinians was impossible.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu's main coalition partner, said violence would continue if Hamas was not toppled and that the cease-fire would allow Hamas to "grow stronger."

Lieberman joined a chorus of critics who have said Netanyahu did not go far enough to topple Hamas and that the war, meant to end incessant rocket fire on communities in Israel's south, changed little on the ground. The war marked the third round of fighting since Hamas seized power in Gaza.

"Both sides did not exactly want this campaign, both sides made all possible errors dragging them into it, and both sides find themselves today returning to square one, where they were at the start of the warfare," wrote Alex Fishman in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

Much of the criticism has come from residents of southern Israeli communities, thousands of whom fled their homes to seek safer areas during the fighting. Many said they were reluctant to return, fearing that the cease-fire did not secure an end to rocket and mortar fire on their communities.

"There is a lot of concern and a lot of uncertainty, and we want quiet already, but a real quiet, not something bogus and not a cease-fire that lasts just a few days," said Liraz Levy, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim near Gaza.

In Gaza, life was slowly returning to normal Wednesday, as traffic policemen took up their positions in streets overwhelmed by vehicles transporting thousands of people back to the homes they had abandoned during the fighting. Harried utility crews struggled to repair electricity and water infrastructure damaged by weeks of Israeli airstrikes.

"We are going back today," said farmer Radwan al-Sultan, 42, as he and some of his seven children used an overloaded auto rickshaw to return to their home in the hard-hit northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. "Finally we will enjoy our home sweet home again."

A Section on 08/28/2014

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