The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported that a citizen was killed and another was seriously injured on Sunday morning, following an Israeli artillery bombardment of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Since dawn on Sunday, the Israeli occupation army has been launching air raids and artillery shelling on various parts of the Gaza Strip, in the areas under its occupation.
This comes as part of Israel’s daily violations of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect in the Gaza Strip on October 10, which resulted in the deaths of 576 Palestinians and injuries to 1,543 others.
Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli artillery intermittently shelled various parts of the eastern areas of Gaza City, and added that Israeli aircraft launched airstrikes on the city of Rafah and the eastern areas of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Witnesses reported that Israeli helicopters and army vehicles fired indiscriminately towards areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. They added that Israeli aircraft launched airstrikes on the city of Rafah and the eastern areas of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The so-called "yellow line," stipulated in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, separates the areas of deployment of the Israeli occupation army, which amount to about 53 percent of the area of the Gaza Strip to the east, from the areas in which Palestinians are allowed to move to the west.
“A strange paradox”
In this context, Hamas affirmed on Sunday that resistance is "a right of peoples under occupation and part of international law and divine laws," and considered the disarmament of Palestinians a "strange paradox" amid the legitimization of weapons held by militias cooperating with Israel in Gaza.
This came in a speech by the head of Hamas abroad, Khaled Meshaal, during his participation in the 17th Al Jazeera Forum, held in the Qatari capital, Doha, entitled "The Palestinian Cause and Regional Balances," which lasts for three days.
Mashaal said: “The philosophy of resistance is based on the fact that as long as there is occupation, there will be resistance. It is a right of peoples under occupation, and it is part of international law and divine laws. Resistance is part of the memory of nations that are proud of it.”
He continued: “There is a strange paradox, when there is a bold and brazen attempt to disarm the Palestinian people, who use their weapons to defend themselves, while the weapons of mercenary militias like Abu Shabab and his ilk are legitimized. These militias are intended to create chaos to fill a void, and they think that the Palestinian people and the resistance forces will leave it.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged last June that he had armed militias in Gaza to use as a force against Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Hebrew newspaper Maariv revealed in the same month that the Abu Shabab militia, which receives Israeli support in the form of weapons, are “criminals who are active in smuggling and selling drugs and property crimes.”
On December 5, the Yasser Abu Shabab-Popular Forces group said via its Facebook account that Abu Shabab was killed by a gunshot wound, and claimed that "this injury occurred while he was in the field trying to resolve the dispute between the sons of the Abu Suneima family."
In addition, talk of disarming theresistance comes in the context of what was stipulated in the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which Washington announced it had begun in mid-January.
This agreement, which is based on US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, came into effect on October 10.
The agreement ended a war of extermination that Israel began on October 8, 2023, and which lasted for two years, leaving more than 72,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 171,000 wounded, most of them children and women, and massive destruction that affected 90 percent of the civilian infrastructure, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at about $70 billion.
