The biggest challenge during the truce: restoring the status of the Palestinian cause as a political issue, and preventing the occupation from returning to implement its plans of genocide and displacement

As soon as the three-stage exchange deal was in people’s hands since Wednesday evening, young and old held their breath waiting for zero hour, the moment when the hell of death they have lived through for more than fifteen months, during which they lost their loved ones and their children, would stop. In these difficult moments, which seem like an eternity, they are waiting impatiently for the ceasefire to start, so that it can come into effect as soon as they are saved by searching for what remains of the remains of their loved ones under the rubble of houses and on the edges of the streets, and perhaps from those whose tender flesh was mixed in the cars that the occupation bombed on the roads. This agreement that people rejoiced over because it represents for them an opportunity to escape the death that they have been struggling with for fifteen long months, and the occupation state continues to practice its fascism with brutality to spoil this joy and turn it into funerals and hours of crying and sadness for the loved ones who are losing their lives in these hours before the start of implementing the deal to escape death, as the operations of blowing up houses in the northern Gaza Strip continue throughout the night and during the day, and the bombing increases in intensity and violence from the occupation aircraft that do not leave the skies of the entire Strip. It is raining hundreds of missiles and tons of explosives on various neighborhoods and leveling them to the ground in Gaza City, targeting homes and shelters, leaving hundreds of victims among women, children and the elderly. At the same time, the bombing continues to target areas in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting the tents of the displaced who have begun to pack their belongings and worn-out tents, awaiting the long-awaited return to the semi-destroyed houses and buildings in northern Gaza.

Before the expected zero hour, the bombing intensifies and the martyrs are torn apart by the occupation’s missiles and shells, turning them into pieces in horrific scenes that bring to mind the first days and months of the most violent and brutal war of extermination during the current century. Not only that, the continued manipulation of people’s nerves by postponing the announced date for implementation has begun to worry people and make them apprehensive for fear that their hopes will be dashed and go down the drain, although all the data indicates that this deal, being a gift to US President Trump as he prepares to enter the White House, is proceeding on the path to implementation, especially in its first and second stages, which makes the entire agreement merely an agreement to exchange prisoners of a security nature, in addition to the flood of trucks carrying tons of humanitarian aid, which makes it an agreement devoid of any political content related to the goals and rights of our Palestinian people, for which they have long struggled and made sacrifices, foremost of which is their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as its capital. It is clear that the occupation, which insists on limiting the matter to the security aspects and humanitarian needs, will work on the threshold of the end of These two stages are based on creating obstacles and impediments and searching for opportunities and pretexts to evade implementing the subsequent stages of the agreement, which would enable him to return again to implement his plans for destruction and displacement and to keep the issue of our people confined to the security and humanitarian dimensions at best. Such a great possibility is what worries people the most and raises their fears after a year of death, famine and displacement during which they drank cups of humiliation and degradation in all its meanings.

This reality that we face without embellishment poses great challenges and responsibilities to all Palestinian political forces and parties, firstly in missing the opportunity for the occupation’s intentions to return again to resume the war of extermination or limit the matter to the two dimensions mentioned above. It is necessary to seize what the first and second stages can provide in terms of opportunities to catch one’s breath and evaluate what is happening without stubbornness and exaggeration, but rather with an objective and realistic reading of the stage that we and the entire region are living in, and to go without procrastination and delay and to stay away from providing any pretext or opportunity that the occupation is waiting for to return to the series of fire and destruction that we can no longer tolerate.

National responsibility requires concerted sincere efforts to restore the status of the Palestinian cause as a political issue and not merely a security and humanitarian issue as it is intended to be. Once again, I say that such an urgent task can only be undertaken by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our people, based on the sacrifices of our people over a century of national struggle and on the experience and political and diplomatic relations it has gained at the regional and international levels, and on the international recognitions and resolutions it has also achieved regarding the status of the Palestinian cause and the right of our people to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Returning to the days and hours preceding the zero hour for implementing the agreement, long experiences confirm that the bombing will intensify and its circle will expand towards committing more massacres until the last minutes before the start of implementation, which requires everyone to be careful and attentive and limit movement and activity except for the utmost necessity so that our people avoid more losses in the last and decisive moments.

He who has faced famine and death and endured the fire of the Holocaust while it was at its peak must be careful not to be caught in the flames in his last moments.