Report: Hamas mulling long-term ceasefire with Israel

T. Belman. During the last war, Israel avoided all proposals by Qatar and Turkey with US backing, preferring to work with Egypt. Now we are back to them. I think that Qatar is financing much of the cost of rebuilding Gaza. Hamas gets to have all their demands met including a port, without a commitment to stop arming themselves. Israel merely gets a ceasefire (Hudna) for 3 to 5 years. Why make this deal. There is currently a ceasefire. So what if it is sporadically violated. The next one will be also. Why should Israel allow the rebuilding without demanding concessions in exchange?

Gaza-based group officials met in Qatar to discuss truce proposal, Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper says

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Leading members of Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas convened in Qatar over the past several days to discuss a proposal for a long-term ceasefire with Israel, the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper reported Monday.

According to Palestinian officials quoted by the paper, Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzouk went to the Qatari capital of Doha on Saturday in the hopes of finalizing a three-to-five year truce with the Jewish state.

The truce proposal, which is backed by both Qatar and Turkey, is based on an outline formulated by UN special envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov, according to the Israeli NRG news site.

In March, The Times of Israel reported that Qatar’s representative to the Gaza strip, Muhammad al-Ahmadi, met with top Israeli and Hamas officials to arbitrate a deal, according to Palestinian sources in Gaza and Ramallah.

The Qatari proposal pushed by Ahmadi involves a long-term ceasefire, ending the blockade of Gaza, inviting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his government back into the Strip and giving him control of the border crossings, rehabilitating Gaza, and constructing a seaport and an airport.

The truce proposal reportedly includes a clause regarding the establishment of a seaport in Gaza, NRG reported. The port, according to the proposal, will be subject to Israeli or international supervision.

Some Hamas officials told The Times of Israel in March that they would not oppose such a resolution.

Senior Israeli officials said that they would be prepared to mull over the proposals and that they, too, do not rule out the possibility of a long-term ceasefire deal with Hamas

The NRG report added that Abu Marzouk held a series of meetings in Qatar with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal as well as other senior officials in the organization.

Israel and Hamas have maintained a tacit ceasefire since late August in a deal brokered by Egypt that ended 50 days of fighting. The calm has been tested in recent weeks, though, as Salafist groups have fired rockets from Gaza into Israel, drawing Israeli airstrikes on Hamas facilities.

Israel holds Hamas, which is the defacto ruler in the Strip, responsible for all rocket fire.

Since 2009, Israel and Hamas have fought three large scale conflicts, including last summer’s Operation Protective Edge. Analysts say neither side is interested in a new war, though Israeli officials have pointed to signs of Hamas rearming and digging new tunnels that may be used for sneak attacks into Israeli territory.

The UN Human Rights Council has been conducting an investigation into the actions of both Israel and Palestinian organizations during last summer’s bloody conflict. Its report is expected to be published in the coming days, and the council is scheduled to debate it on June 29.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed during the 50-day war killed, according to Palestinian sources in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip; and 73 Israelis, including 66 soldiers. Israel maintains almost half of the Palestinians killed were combatants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths since military infrastructure was placed in residential areas.

In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the July-August Gaza war against Hamas, calling it both “lawful” and “legitimate.”

At the same time officials in Jerusalem have painted the UN inquiry, with which they refused to cooperate, as a pre-written biased attempt to smear Israel.

The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.

Israel says that terrorists used schools to store weapons, and fired rockets from the vicinity of such sites.

The Jewish state has long had a stormy relationship with the UNHRC, which it sees as anti-Israeli, and fiercely opposed the Gaza probe from the start.

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Arutz Sheva sheds more light:

Hamas is seriously considering a Qatar-backed proposal to hold a ceasefire with Israel for five years, Palestinian Arab news sources report Tuesday.

Reportedly, the organization’s senior official Moussa Abu Marzuk, who left abruptly from Gaza last week less than two weeks after his arrival, visited Qatar on Saturday and held meetings on the subject in which he said Hamas was inclined to accept the offer.

This is partly due to the split between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) as well as Salafists’ attempts to provoke an all-out war – and to the expectation of Israel acquiescing, an Egyptian official told Maan news.

Marzuk held the meetings in Doha with Khaled Meshaal, and in partial cooperation with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov, who is serving as a top envoy in the Middle East for the United Nations (UN).

Several reports reveal that Hamas is suffering under the strain of Salafist groups – more than one of which pledges allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS) – and is unable to keep views more extremist than its own from undermining its power. The resulting rocket fire from these groups on Israeli civilians is begging another war, a move which analysts say is a means of drawing Israel into the power conflict over Gaza.

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Jewish Business News reports:

Senior Hamas officials are in Qatar for talks about a possible 5 year truce with Israel, this according to a report made by Israel Radio. Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzouk is said to be among the group.

According to the report, the cease fire proposal is based on one put forward by UN special envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov and which has the support of both Turkey and Qatar.

If the truce succeeds, then Hamas will be able to move forward with its plans for a new port in Gaza as well as a new airport.

Details of the deal, if there is one, have not been revealed. So it is not clear what, if any, guarantees Israel would have that Hamas will end its plans for acts of terrorism against it. For example, how can Israel be sure that Hamas will shut down all of its terror tunnels that lead into Israel and build no new ones?

Another complication for any deal are the recent lone rocket attacks on Israel which came out of Gaza. But Hamas has denied any involvement in them, putting the blame on smaller groups.

There is one thing that could get Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce: Islamic State. The current most feared terrorist group in the world has caused some very strange alliances. America and Iran are on the same side against it in Iraq and Israel certainly does not wish to see it take over Syria.

Hamas is also opposed to IS and has very publicly executed IS members in Gaza.

But the biggest gain for Israel in any deal would be a counter to the BDS. If Israel agrees to open its blockade of Gaza then it would deprive the boycott Israel movement of its strongest piece of propaganda against the country.