Iran's Supreme Leader: Palestinian patience, resistance forced Israel to back down

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei commended the sacrifices and valor of Palestinians and their resistance in the face of the months-long Israeli aggression that resulted in a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and forced the regime to back down.

News ID: 5786

Date: 16 January 2025 - 21:37

TABNAK, Jan 16: Ayatollah Khamenei made the statement in a post on his X social media account on Thursday, hours after a long-awaited truce deal was announced to end 16 months of Israel’s brutal onslaught on Gaza.

“Today, the world realized that the Palestinian people’s patience and the Palestinian resistance’s resilience have forced the Zionist regime to back down,” the Leader said.

“It will be written in books that one day, a Zionist group massacred thousands of women and children in the most horrific way and at the end, they were quashed.”

The ceasefire, brokered by Qatar and Egypt, was announced by Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani late on Wednesday. It consists of three phases and would come into effect on Sunday over a span of 42 days.

The truce deal, which would potentially bring an end to Israel's devastating genocidal aggression on the territory, stipulates that a large-scale prisoner exchange will occur, including the release of 1,000 prisoners from Gaza and hundreds of detainees serving lengthy sentences.

The first stage involves the release of 33 captives, including "children, women, female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick," as well as a gradual, partial withdrawal of invading Israeli units.

Israel launched its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since October, the occupying regime has killed at least 46,707 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 110,265 others, in Gaza.