Even though Israel has a nature of not abiding by agreements… may the agreement be blessed

As a result of the agreement signed in Egypt between Israel and Hamas, with the participation of Türkiye, Egypt and Qatar, Israel's barbaric attacks, which had continued for two years, have for now come to a halt. We say "for now," because Israel has no disposition to remain faithful to agreements. On the contrary, we have countless experiences showing that it plans how to break agreements even as it makes them, and that it violates them before the ink of the signatures has dried. For now, the guarantorship that the same agreement has given to the US, Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt, to monitor whether the terms of the agreement are observed, appears to be the only assurance that will compel Israel to keep its word. Indeed, the Hamas political leader Khalil al-Hayya announced the agreement they had reached by saying that they had received assurances from the mediating countries that Israel would not start the war again.

An agreement had in fact been reached on 15 January as well. The majority of the captives in Hamas's hands were still alive, and Israel would actually have had a much greater gain than at the point to which it has consented today. But instead of adhering to the agreement, coveting the greater gains it might obtain by violating it, it attacked again. In the end, after 9 months, it was forced to return to the negotiating table at a point even further back than the same one, having killed a significant portion of the hostages as a result of its own attacks, and perhaps some of them through the starvation to which it subjected them like the other Gazans.

It is quite clear that, despite all the losses it suffered, the agreement is still a great victory for Hamas.

There will be many who immediately turn up their noses at this, citing the losses it has suffered. They are failing to take into account Israel's immense, incomparable losses in this process. A loss far greater even than what we could describe by saying "the little is going for the much." For two years Israel, both as a people and as a state, has been etched into minds as the most hated, most discredited, most disgraced, most primitive country in the world. It is a complete rout in which the whole narrative it had built up over 75 years, through enormous investments in global politics, media and literature, has collapsed. If bombs with the force of at least 10-15 atomic bombs fell on Gaza, they have left a more destructive effect in that sense on Israel too. Turn the ruined lands of Gaza upside down and that is Israel's picture in the world. On the other side of the mirror, there is the reality of a Palestine, Gaza and Hamas that has begun to gain a global dimension and acceptance.

The second dimension, which those who turn up their noses at seeing this as Hamas's victory do not take into account, or perhaps will never be able to understand, is the meaning of life, of jihad or of struggle for the Palestinian people. Within 2 years they made the whole world acquainted, in all its details, with the reality, history and nature of this struggle. As Abu Ubaida constantly repeated, this is a jihad, and it has two outcomes, victory or martyrdom, and neither is a loss. Because they looked at it that way at every stage, they never lost; and now, with all their dignity, they have sat down at the table from which they had been denied until now, and they have achieved very great gains.

The third is the disregard of the fact that Palestinians, because Israel had dazzled the eyes of the whole world until now, were already being slowly killed with the silent approval of the whole world. Hamas turned the Palestinian cause, which had been forgotten and disregarded even by the Islamic world, into the cause of freedom and humanity for the whole world.

Beyond these gains, there is the fact that Hamas, as a movement, has found a line of struggle and demand within Palestine on which all the elements unite and reach a consensus. Both because of the level of sympathy that it has carried its own struggle to on a global scale, and because it has attained the undisputed position of leadership of the Palestinian cause at home. The demands it put forward in the earlier exchange agreements and in the present agreement, by embracing not only its own prisoners but also the prisoners of the other Palestinian groups, have in effect united all the elements of the Palestinian cause.

As a result of the struggle it waged and the prices it paid, the "State of Palestine" was recognized in the last stretch by many countries. That it will not have a place in the recognized Palestinian state or in the administration of Gaza is not important at all in this respect. It has given the struggle such a level and content that no Palestinian group that will take over the administration of Gaza from now on will be able to fall below it. This situation also points to a new political horizon on which the differences between the West Bank and Gaza can be overcome. This horizon will undoubtedly bring with it the emergence of new formations within Palestinian politics.

The agreement reached is of course not a surrender by Hamas; on the contrary, it is an agreement in which, even though it suffered heavy casualties, it sat at the table as an equal without being defeated. Israel, when it started this war two years ago, failed to achieve either of its two greatest goals. Perhaps it managed to murder some of its leaders treacherously, like a terrorist organization, but it neither destroyed Hamas nor was it able to rescue its captives other than those it receives through the agreement. Now it will receive the great majority of the captives it could not take, having killed them with its own bombardments.

Moreover, this agreement does not provide a shield of impunity for Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Israeli officials and all the criminals will continue to feel the sword of justice at their necks for all the crimes they have committed over two years. Indeed, it is a requirement of justice that compensation by Israel for the destruction that took place in Gaza be demanded in some part of this agreement, and this will sooner or later come about. That the Gaza it destroyed is to be rebuilt by some Muslim countries is one of the most unjust points of this agreement. But to be realistic, there is unfortunately no balance at present that could make a spoiled Israel, under US protection, accept this at this stage.

May the agreement and the ceasefire be blessed. The people of Gaza suffered greatly, the world watched; in an era when no one could raise a voice against the inhuman Zionist hegemony and everyone was in a race to conform to it, Hamas alone, without receiving or being able to receive military aid from anyone, with only its own faith, patience and perseverance, brought it to its knees on behalf of all humanity. It made all humanity a witness to the fulfillment of Allah's promise. May Allah bless it.