Gazans mark anniversary of Israeli war

by Saud Abu Ramadan, Emad Drimly

GAZA, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The 1.5 million Palestinians in the impoverished enclave of the Gaza Strip on Sunday marked one year anniversary of the 22-day Israeli air, sea and ground military offensive on the territory.

The Gazans marked the anniversary as Israel keeps a tight blockade imposed on the enclave for more than three years. The ongoing Israeli blockade had badly harmed the Palestinian economy in the Hamas-ruled enclave and hindered the reconstruction of what had been destroyed after the war.

In Gaza City, hundreds of children aged between 6 and 12 years old marched the main street of the city and headed towards the square of the unknown soldier in the city's downtown.

A pro-Hamas organization called al-Rahma or the mercy organized the children's rally to mark the one-year anniversary, where most of the children had either lost their fathers during the war or their houses completely destroyed.

"I can't forget when the Israeli F-16 warplane destroyed our house and killed my father. I came here to join the rally and to tell the world that Israel committed awful crimes against us," said Ahmed Abu Halima, a 10-year-old child from northern Gaza Strip.

Also on Sunday, members of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) as well as Hamas ministers and representatives of several factions gathered at the yard of the parliament which was bombarded and destroyed during the war.

During the gathering, warning sirens whistled while PLC members stood one minute of grief over the people killed during the war.

The deposed government of Hamas in Gaza announced that it has arranged a series of four-day activities all over the Gaza Strip. The activities include rallies and visits of destroyed areas.

The goal of the toughest war on the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli political and security establishment, was to rein on Gaza Strip militants, mainly Hamas movement, to halt firing homemade rockets at southern Israeli towns and communities.

However, Islamic Hamas movement leaders in Gaza insisted that the war, which aimed at destroying the movement's infrastructure, hasn't affected the movement's power and its popularity among the Palestinians, and Hamas military abilities were not broken.

Deposed Prime Minister of Hamas government Ismail Haneya said in a statement on the occasion of the anniversary that "Gaza Strip is still strong and Israel was not able to defeat Gaza which has been weakened by a tight blockade and more restrictions that mounted suffering among the population."

"Gaza has become so hard to be defeated. Gaza has won by its incredible steadfastness where the Zionist enemy failed to achieve its goals and our fighters forced the occupation forces to pull out as they continued their armed resistance against it," said Haneya.