Hezbollah Rally Protests Gaza Siege
Thousands of people gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday for a mass protest organized by Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement against Israel’s crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Streets were cordoned off as protesters waving Palestinian flags and yellow Hezbollah flags poured into the Hezbollah stronghold for the rally in Al-Raya Stadium as loudspeakers blasted out a speech by its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah boy scouts and women in black chadors carried two huge Palestinian flags through the crowd.
Some protesters chanted “Death to Israel! Death to America! “As others carried placards reading, “No peace if it leads to humanitarian catastrophe“and “May God protects our leader Nasrallah. “
Other demonstrations are also being held in cities in the south, north and in the Bekaa Valley, east of the capital.
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed after the democratically-elected government of Hamas ousted forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, was tightened even further last month because of an upsurge in violence.
Tensions remained high in and around Gaza on Friday as Hamas declared an end to a troubled six-month truce with Israel and warned they would respond to any attack.
The truce had been uneasy ever since it went into effect on June 19 and violence has increased since early November, with 18 Palestinians killed and Israel reporting more than 250 rocket and mortar fire attacks.
A statement from Hamas’s armed wing, Izzeddin Al-Qassam, said, “We announce that the calm between us and the Zionist enemy has finished entirely and it will not be renewed as a result of the occupation’s denial of its fundamental conditions and obligations.“
It said any Israeli incursion would “open the doors of the battle wide and would be met by a painful response from our side“.
An Israeli military source said two rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel as the truce was declared to have ended, and that a cross-border shooting from Gaza at a collective farm also resulted in no casualties.
Hamas stopped short of threatening an immediate escalation of violence against Israel, which had hoped to extend the truce and appears wary of a confrontation that could cause heavy casualties on both sides.
other links:
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