Islamic Jihad: Israel heading to hell through continued war

The secretary general of the Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Shallah, said on Sunday that the Israeli occupation is heading to Hell through its continued war on the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera television on Sunday, Shallah said the occupation will not be able to achieve any of its aims and the war will prove to be a “big failure”, both intelligence wise and strategically.

Shallah explained that, through this war, the occupation had been hoping to export its internal crises and end an old conflict with the Palestinian resistance. But it was shocked when it discovered that it had brought Palestinian rockets into Tel-Aviv instead.

He stressed that any ceasefire, like the one that was reached in 2012, will not be possible without meeting the following conditions: lifting the siege of Gaza, opening the crossings and reinforcing the Palestinian right to respond to any potential Israeli aggression.

The Palestinian leader noted that the Palestinian resistance is coherent, cooperative, and able to face this battle with great steadfastness and persistence.

Regarding efforts to reach a ceasefire, he said: “Unfortunately, until this moment, there is no serious mediator who is able to rein in the occupation,” pointing out that the US is a partner to the Israeli occupation and thus complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

He insisted on the significance of Egypt, which brokered all previous agreements, in any future ceasefire agreement, appealing to the Egyptian government to prioritise the Palestinian issue and not allow the Israeli aggression to continue unchecked.

Regarding the West Bank, Shallah called for Fatah to take the Palestinians into a third Intifada against the Israeli occupation. He reiterated that there is a high level of cooperation between Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to secure the best outcome for the Palestinians.

He also stressed the importance of achieving a proper national reconciliation in order to undermine Israel’s colonial plans, which aim to retain the internal Palestinian divisions to weaken the resistance and serve the interests of the occupiers.