Hamas claims victory in conflict with Israel

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: A senior Hamas figure claimed victory in the conflict with Israel on Friday in a speech to thousands of people celebrating in Gaza City after a ceasefire came into place.

"This is the euphoria of victory," said Khalil al-Hayya, the second most senior member of the Islamist movement’s political bureau in the Gaza Strip. He also promised to reconstruct homes destroyed by Israeli air strikes.

The ceasefire brokered by Egypt, that also included Gaza’s second-most powerful armed group, Islamic Jihad, was agreed on Thursday evening and came into force on Friday after international pressure to stem the bloodshed which erupted earlier this month.

Bloody Israeli strikes on Gaza since May 10 have killed 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, as well as fighters, and have wounded another 1,900, according to the Gaza health ministry. Vast areas have been reduced to rubble and about 120,000 people have been displaced, according to Hamas authorities.

The Israeli army says Hamas and other Islamist armed groups in Gaza have fired more than 4,300 rockets towards Israel over the course of the conflict, but the overwhelming majority of those headed for populated areas were intercepted by its Iron Dome air defences.

The rockets claimed 12 lives in Israel, including two children and an Israeli soldier, with one Indian and two Thai nationals among those killed, the police say.

Meanwhile, Beijing on Friday welcomed a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, saying China hopes there will be a "cessation of violence" and a return to peace talks.

A ceasefire came into force early Friday after 11 days of deadly fighting that killed hundreds of Palestinians and 12 in Israel. Beijing said the international community now needs to "extend helping hands" to the region, and will commit $1 million in emergency aid and a further $1 million to UN relief efforts for the Palestinians.

It will also provide 200,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to the Palestinians. "China welcomes the ceasefire between both sides in the Palestine-Israel conflict, and hopes the relevant parties will earnestly implement the ceasefire and cessation of violence," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press conference Friday. "The international community should promote the resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel, and achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestine issue on the basis of the two state solution," he added.

Beijing -- which has invited the two sides to hold direct talks in China -- has also used the conflict as an opportunity to hit out at the US, including criticising Washington for earlier blocking a joint statement on the crisis at the UN Security Council.

Zhao said that China was willing to work with the international community to "promote further easing of the tense Palestine-Israel situation."

The escalating conflict has been a divisive topic on Chinese social media, where there is a large amount of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment, as well as sympathy for Palestinians.

Earlier this week, the Israeli embassy in Beijing hit out at China’s state broadcaster for what it said was "blatant anti-Semitism" in a report on US policy during the ongoing deadly violence.In a related development, emergency workers on Friday recovered five bodies and rescued around 10 survivors from the rubble of what appeared to be a tunnel in Gaza hit by Israeli bombardment, medics and witnesses said.

Raed al-Dahshan, deputy head of Gaza’s civil defence, said they were still sifting through the rubble to find more bodies, hours after a ceasefire ended 11 days of Israeli air strikes on the besieged coastal enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas.

"The civil defence and the ministry of public works and municipalities are working to clear away the rubble," he said. "We are continuing to look for the missing under the debris.