‘Palestinian resistance gains from recent Israeli attacks’

By Serdar Bitmez and Zeynep Hilal Karyagdi

DOHA (AA) – Recent Israeli attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip have taken the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a new level, a Palestinian expert said on Wednesday.

“The Palestinian resistance has achieved various political gains with the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza,” Shafik Shakir, a researcher at Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Research Center, told Anadolu Agency.

“The most important achievement of the resistance in the recent attacks was to unite the Palestinian struggle in all Palestinian territories,” Shakir said.

Important steps have been taken toward the unity of the Palestinian people as Jerusalem and other Palestinian territories have also gotten involved in the recent conflict between Israel and Gaza unlike the previous ones, he noted.

The Trump administration considered Palestinian resistance group Hamas a terrorist organization, the researcher said. The former US government was not negotiating with Hamas representatives and was even calling on the world to boycott the group, Shakir said.

But recent attacks have forced the new US administration under President Joe Biden to make contact with Hamas, albeit indirectly, through mediators.

Last Friday, an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel came into effect, putting an end to 11 days of the worst cycle of fighting in years.

At least 284 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, and more than 1,900 others injured in the recent Israeli onslaught on Gaza and the West Bank, according to Palestinian health officials.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara