AS EXPECTED: "Hamas' Haniyeh declares 'victory' over Israel"

YNET/REUTERS: Hamas' Haniyeh declares 'victory' over Israel

Group's leader in Gaza says IDF offensive was a failure, hails decision to declare ceasefire as 'wise and responsible'

A Hamas leader said on Sunday Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians.

"The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in the territory, said in a speech broadcast on Hamas television.

Though he called the war, in which more than 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died, a "popular victory" for Palestinians, Haniyeh said Hamas' decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible".

YES, YES; SURE, SURE: HAMAS WON, AND ER UM... ISLAM IS A "RELIGION OF PEACE". SURE.

A Palestinian search[ed] through the rubble
of a destroyed building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
As Hamas congratulated Palestinians on their "victory"
from mosque loudspeakers on Sunday,
shell-shocked residents surveyed the debris
of the deadliest offensive ever launched by Israel on Gaza.

WITH A FEW MORE VICTORIES LIKE THIS, HAMAS WILL BE COMPLETELY ERADICATED.