GAZA/JRUSALEM, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Israel reopened crossings into the Gaza Strip on Monday after a truce was reached between the Jewish state and Islamic Jihad on Sunday, ending three days of clashes.
At least 44 people, including 15 children, have been killed and hundreds more injured in clashes between the Israeli army and Islamic Jihad since Friday.
“All of our goals have been achieved,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a televised address. “The Islamic Jihad Gaza military command was eliminated in three days.”
A spokesman for the movement said the group had suffered heavy losses, stressing however that it had succeeded in imposing its conditions on Israel and maintaining unity and cohesion.
“The enemy has made the annihilation of Islamic Jihad his main concern, but this objective, this dream, this delirium, has failed,” he said.
In a press conference broadcast by the pro-Iranian Lebanese television channel Al Mayadine after the announcement of the truce, the head of Islamic Jihad, Ziad al Nakhala, welcomed the ceasefire. “It’s a win,” he said.
Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip on Friday over fears of reprisals following the arrest on Monday in the West Bank of a senior Islamic Jihad leader.
The movement then fired hundreds of rockets at the Jewish state in retaliation. (Report Nidal al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie, with contributions from Maayan Lubbell and Dan Williams; French version Camille Raynaud, told by Nicolas Delame)