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Islamic Jihad says Gaza militants forced Israel to accept ceasefire

14 March 2012 03:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said Tuesday that militant groups in the Gaza Strip forced Israel to commit to a fragile ceasefire after a wave of violence, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The resistance created a new equitation for the balance of deterrence and forced the Israeli occupation to beg for lull," Ramadan Shalah, the leader of the group, told hundreds of Islamic Jihad supporters gathering in Gaza after the ceasefire took effect. His voice came from loudspeakers as he addressed the crowd over the phone.

The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal was "an unprecedented victory of the resistance" since it included an Israeli commitment not to target any wanted Palestinian militant, he said.

The four-day fighting started Friday when Israeli airstrike killed a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees and his assistant, claiming the lives of 25 Palestinians, including five civilians.