Gaza Siege Must Be Lifted, Prisoners Freed: Haniyeh

Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas' political office, said Monday that his movement would only accept a ceasefire with Israel if it included guarantees that Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip would be lifted and recently detained Palestinians would be freed.



"We must also ensure that Israeli aggression isn't repeated in the future," Haniyeh declared in a televised address.



Israel has imposed a crippling embargo on the Gaza Strip since 2006, turning the coastal enclave – home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – into the world's largest open-air prison.



Heniyeh said many Gazan homes lacked potable water, while Gazan farmers were prevented from cultivating their crops and Gazan fishermen from plying their trade.



He added that young people in Gaza could not find employment and medical patients could not find medicine, while all crossings into and out of the strip remained tightly sealed.



"We will never accept a return to the status quo," Haniyeh asserted.



Since July 7, at least 541 Palestinians have been killed – mostly civilians – and more than 3150 injured in unrelenting Israeli attacks on the besieged Palestinian territory.



Sunday was the two-week-long onslaught's deadliest day yet, with at least 110 Palestinians – including 72 in Shujaya, a residential area of eastern Gaza City – killed by devastating Israeli air and artillery attacks.



Israel's military operation, dubbed "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip within the last six years.



Prior to Israel's onslaught on Gaza, Israeli authorities had detained hundreds of Hamas members in the occupied West Bank, following the disappearance – and subsequent death – of three Israeli teenage settlers in the southern West Bank.



In his televised address, Haniyeh said the world had turned its back on Gaza for eight years.



"Today, the world must understand that Gaza has decided to end the blockade with its own blood and men," Haniyeh said. "We will not go back to slow death [as a result of the siege]."



He said his movement's demands were both "just" and "humane" and were also in line with international law.



By Yasser al-Bana



englishnews@aa.com.tr



www.aa.com.tr/en - Gazze