Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday hailed a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and the Hamas militant group as a “victory” for Palestinians and a “defeat” for Israel.
“The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire… is a clear victory and a great victory for Palestine and a bigger defeat for the monstrous Zionist regime,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement.
Recall that Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and came just ahead of the January. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli communities on October . 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and left the narrow coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble, with hundreds of thousands surviving the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.
