4 yıl önce

Hamas, Israel agree to truce in Qatar-brokered deal

De-escalation of tensions with Doha's efforts ends more than three weeks of attacks along the volatile de facto border between Gaza and Israel.

Reuters

Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza on August 28, 2020.

Palestinian resistance groups and Israel have agreed to end a weeks-long escalation of unrest along the volatile Israel-Gaza fence, Gaza's ruling group Hamas and Israel said.

After talks with Qatari envoy Mohammed el Emadi, "an understanding was reached to rein in the latest escalation and end (Israeli) aggression against our people," said the office of the Palestinian group's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.

In the latest escalation, Israel has bombed Gaza almost daily since August 6, in response to airborne incendiary devices and, less frequently, rockets launched across the border.

The fire bombs, crude devices fitted to balloons, inflated condoms, or plastic bags, have triggered more than 400 blazes and damaged swathes of farmland in southern Israel, according to the Israeli authorities.

An Egyptian delegation had been shuttling between the two sides to try to broker a renewal of an informal truce under which Israel committed to easing its 13-year-old blockade of Gaza in return for calm on the de facto border.

The delegation was joined by Emadi, who also held talks with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.

A Hamas source told AFP news agency there had been "a total halt" to balloon and other attacks against Israel, in agreement with other factions in the coastal strip, home to some two million people.

"Fuel supplies will return and the power station will be restarted from Tuesday," the source said.

A punitive Israeli-imposed ban on fuel deliveries cut electricity to just four hours a day, supplied from the Israeli grid.

Crossing to reopen

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit that oversees civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that after "efforts to calm the situation", it would "resume the routine activity of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, including the entry of fuel products", from Tuesday.

"In addition, the fishing zone of the Gaza Strip will be expanded to 15 nautical miles," it said.

But, COGAT warned: "If Hamas, which is accountable for all actions that are taken in the Gaza Strip, fails to stand its obligations, Israel will act accordingly."

Aid from Qatar increases

The Hamas source added that work would be allowed to start on the construction of a new power line, while a $30-million Qatari aid tranche for Gaza would be expanded to $35 million, with the difference used to cover public servants' salaries.

Financial aid from gas-rich Qatar has been a major component of a truce first agreed more than a year ago and renewed several times since.

The fire balloons launched in recent weeks were widely seen as an attempt by Hamas to improve the terms of the informal deal.

Sources close to Hamas had said it also wanted other measures to ease living conditions in the territory, including the extension of an industrial zone in the east and an increase in the number of Israeli work permits issued to Gazans once anti-coronavirus restrictions have been lifted.

But disagreements over implementation have fuelled repeated flare-ups with the group, which governs besieged Gaza since 2007.

Such flare-ups escalated into full-blown conflicts in 2008, 2012 and 2014, and mediators have been working to prevent a new war.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies