Israel Matzav

Report: Cease fire in Gaza on Tuesday

Reports on Arab television claim that Khaled Meshaal will sign a 'humanitarian' cease fire on Hamas' behalf in Cairo on Tuesday.

Mashaal held cease-fire discussions with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Qatar on Monday in the first meeting of its kind since the beginning of the current round of fighting.

During the meeting, Abbas emphasized the need for all parties to abide by the recent Egyptian cease-fire initiative, a Palestinian official accompanying the PA president said.

The official said that Abbas and Mashaal agreed to continue consultations in order to “stop the Israeli aggression” on the Gaza Strip.

There are two small problems with this report. One is that Meshaal is not in Gaza and does not control the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Their leader - Ismail Haniyeh - would rather fight than quit.

In the Gaza Strip, former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech his movement has decided to “end the blockade with its blood and weapons and there would be no return back.”

Haniyeh said that Hamas’ conditions for a cease-fire include ending the blockade and Israeli “aggression” on the Gaza Strip and the release of former Palestinian prisoners who were rearrested by Israel in the past few weeks.

Haniyeh is also furious at the lack of support from the Arab world (well, duh - did you really expect the Arab world to support mass suicide with no gains in return?).

Haniyeh also denounced Arab “silence” toward the war in the Gaza Strip. “The silence of the Arab regimes has emboldened the enemy and given it a cover to perpetrate more crimes,” he charged.

There's a second problem with this report: No one seems to have asked Israel if we agree to this 'cease fire.' Do we?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Cairo, cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, Khaled Meshaal, Operation Protective Edge, terror tunnels

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:04 AM