Palestinian PM praises state resistance as a ‘political victory’

Palestinian representatives speaking at a recent conference in Gaza The Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has praised the state’s resistance against Israel, saying it has achieved “key victories” in recent years including the so called Shalit deal .Signed in October 2011 between Israel and Hamas, the deal coordinated the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for releasing one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. In 2006, Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas on the Gaza border while on patrol – he was held captive for five years. A mounting campaign by the Israeli public prompted the government to finally secure his release in October 2011, as part of the Shalit deal.
"The resistance managed to detain Shalit for five years and succeeded in releasing many prisoners in the exchange deal,”Haniyeh said on Sunday, at a conference discussing the war in Gaza.
Haniyeh also claimed that Israel were already aware that Palestine possessed weapons such as RPGs and missiles, adding that Israeli authorities were only surprised that "we actually used them.”
He added that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in November 2012, which lasted eight days, was a “political victory for Gaza.”
The 8-day war which began on November 13 resulted in 161 deaths, many of them Palestinian civilians. A ceasefire was brokered by the then, newly elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, ending the conflict on November 21.
"If the war went on for longer, the occupation and the world would have seen other surprises from the resistance", said Haniyeh
During his speech at the conference in western Gaza, Haniyeh paid tribute to human rights and legal organisations working in the area, for “striving to expose the crimes of the occupation and to prosecute its leaders.”
In addition, he claimed that the Arab Spring revolutions, which toppled four regimes across the region in just two years, have actually succeeded in strengthening alliances with countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Qatar.
Haniyeh concluded the conference by insisting that the Palestinian government was still interested in reaching a peace deal with Israel, but cautioned that “it must be based on protecting the rights of the Palestinian people without giving up another inch of Palestinian territory.”