T. Belman. The Obama administration has been pushing for the removal of the blockade for years. I wouldn’t be surprises that they are behind this. Unfortunately this article makes no mention of Israel’s demands in exchange. A 7 year ceasefire is of little value if Hamas doesn’t agree to demilitarize and to allow Israel inspections. Such a deal would be no different from the Iran Deal.
This article is also silent on the joint Israel/Egypt fight against Hamas.
A leading Arab daily reported on Thursday that Israel has agreed to “entirely” remove its blockade on the Gaza Strip and establish a naval passageway between the Hamas-controlled territory and Cyprus, in return for a long-term ceasefire lasting seven to 10 years.
Quoting “trusted Palestinian sources,” the London-based al-Hayat said that the agreement was reached through indirect negotiations conducted by outgoing Quartet representative to the Middle East Tony Blair, a former British prime minister. According to the report, Israel has rejected a Qatari offer to fund a new Israeli airport in return for the reopening of an international airport in Gaza.
Reports of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas through European mediators following last summer’s war in the Strip have been confirmed by both Israeli security sources and Hamas officials. Hamas has consistently demanded the construction of a seaport and airport, as well as the release of dozens of the movement’s prisoners arrested following the killing of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas terrorists in the West Bank in June 2014.
But a final agreement between Israel and Hamas is still far off, the sources told al-Hayat.
Sheikh Hassan Youssef, a Ramallah-based Hamas leader who endorsed a long-term ceasefire in an interview with The Times of Israel last week, said on Thursday that he had no information of the new deal.
“I heard about it this morning, but I can neither confirm nor deny,” he said in a phone conversation.
Blair finalized the details with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal during a meeting in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday, the al-Hayat report said, noting that it was the second meeting between the two in six weeks. Blair, the newspaper argued, had resigned as Quartet representative in late May so as not to embarrass its constituent bodies — the US, EU, UN and Russia — which officially refuse to engage Hamas as long as it does not recognize Israel, reject violence, and accept previously signed agreements between the PLO and Israel.
Asked to comment, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not initially provide a response to the report.
Probably coming later on, after all, qatar made deals with Israel for approval to develop gaza before POD war and is still making deals today. Qatar is the hamas supervisor representing the GCC
note where the deal is made. My view is that no one is forcing BB to make these deals, this is a direct result of the developing relations with the GCC. I expect that the GCC who control hamas and egypt, along with BB, have a longer term but hte hudna is the way that Hamas can morph slowly from a resistance gov to a political gov when in the past its only credentials was “resistance”. as long as the relations with the GCC holds and Sisi stays on board, hamas is on the leash. However,although I have believed these relations existed the last few years it can turn on a dime in relation to the GCC relaitons with Iran. If a political deal is made between saudi and Iran over syria and iraq we will then have to see what the saudi do with all their sunni proxies.