Al Jazeera: "Palestinian groups admitted that they had been using the truce to train and better arm themselves"

The end of the, ahem, ceasefire means that Hamas is unambiguously at war with Israel. Israel has every right, if somehow it didn't previously, to do whatever it takes to win the war. It bought into this ceasefire, of course, so the chances that the Zionist entity will snap out of it are not promising.

Palestinian group Hamas has declared that the six-month ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Strip is over.

The ceasefire officially ended at daybreak in Gaza on Friday and came after armed Palestinian groups admitted that they had been using the truce to train and better arm themselves.

The Izz-al-din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, blamed Israel for the failure of the truce.

"The ceasefire is over and there won't be a renewal because the Zionist enemy has not respected its conditions," the group said on its website.

The announcement followed talks between various Palestinian factions within the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel after Hamas made its announcement of the ceasefire, the Israeli military has said. [...]

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza, said some of the armed Palestinian factions had used the calm to better train and equip themselves, saying not only had their resolve grown stronger, but their weapons had as well.

Mohyeldin said longer range rockets, heavier machine guns and more accurate firing systems have all been acquired, according to the armed groups . . .

Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad's military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, said: "During the calm we trained and prepared ourselves for the period after the calm. We will deploy to the front lines along the border and reinforce our positions there with new weapons that we have brought." [...]

Think of it as the alarm going off yet again after the latest press of the snooze-button.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad