Palestinians take part in a candle-lighting protest in solidarity with Gaza, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on December 27, 2009. Palestinians on Sunday held a protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians on December 27, 2008. December 27, 2009 is the first anniversary of the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip. [Xinhua]

Palestinian children take part in a candle-lighting protest in solidarity with Gaza, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on December 27, 2009. Palestinians on Sunday held a protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians on December 27, 2008. December 27, 2009 is the first anniversary of the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip. [Xinhua]

A Palestinian girl takes part in a candle-lighting protest in solidarity with Gaza, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on December 27, 2009. Palestinians on Sunday held a protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians on December 27, 2008. December 27, 2009 is the first anniversary of the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip. [Xinhua]

The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday marked the first anniversary of the start of an Israeli offensive in the coastal strip which left more than 1,400 people killed.

Hamas, which controls the enclave, staged several ceremonies under the motto of "victory and steadfastness" to mark the war which Israel said was launched in a bid to halt years of rocket fire from the enclave.

At 11:20 AM (0920 GMT), sirens wailed across the Gaza Strip as cars and people froze for one minute in grief to remember this time a year ago when Israel waged the three-week military operation.

The mosques also played phrases of Quran through their megaphones, announcing a scene of mourning.

Ahmed Bahar, deputy speaker of the Hamas-dominated parliament, raised the curtain off a memorial with the names of hundreds of the Palestinians killed in the war.

Lu'ai Soboh, who lost his sight in the attacks, and Ameera al-Qerem, who lost three of her family members, accompanied Bahar as the victims of the offensive.

Bahar believed that the so-called Operation Cast Lead was meant to topple the Hamas rule, end the rocket attacks on Israel and rescue Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been held hostage by Hamas since 2006. However, he stressed that Israel has failed to achieve its goals.

"All the attempts to strike and end the resistance will fail," Bahar said, describing the underground steel wall Egypt is building on its borders with Gaza as "the last arrow in the international regime's quiver to wear out Gaza."

During other rallies across the Gaza city, the demonstrators burnt Israeli and US flags in addition to posters of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and senior political and military officials of his government.

The war, which started on December 27, 2008, ended 22 days later with mutual ceasefire by Israel and Hamas.

About 1,420 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip during the war, more than two-thirds of whom civilians, and more than 5,500 people injured, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The war also left 13 Israelis dead.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2009)