Hamas not rearming or digging new tunnels, says senior defense official

Senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said Saturday that indirect ceasefire talks in Cairo with Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups are set to resume within the month but a date has yet to be set.

Gilad’s comment seemed at odds with statements made by Hamas on Wednesday that talks were set to resume as early as next week.

Gilad also said Hamas was not rearming or digging new tunnels into Israel. Earlier this week, Al Jazeera reported that rival Gaza-based Islamist terror group Islamic Jihad was rebuilding tunnels beneath the Strip, including some that are to burrow under the border with Israel.

Fifty days of deadly fighting between Israel and terrorists in Gaza that killed approximately 2,100 Palestinians — about 1,000 of them combatants, Israel says — and 72 Israelis, ended on August 26 with an open-ended truce agreement. Israel said it would ease restrictions on movement of personnel and goods through the two crossings into Gaza which it controls, but core issues of dispute were set to be negotiated in indirect talks in Cairo after a month.

Gilad was part of a five-man Israeli delegation to the Cairo talks that eventually reached the ceasefire agreement.

Under the terms of the deal, the parties agreed to resume the Egyptian-brokered negotiations to discuss, among other issues, a Hamas demand for a port and an airport, a prisoner swap and Israel’s insistence on Gaza terrorists disarming. Israel has ruled out removing controls over access to Gaza, as has Egypt, unless or until Hamas disarms, which Hamas refuses to do. Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Israel and much of the international community, seized control of Gaza in a violent coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

“Hamas will never agree to give up its arms. But at this point, it is not rearming or digging any more tunnels,” Gilad told Channel 2’s “Meet the Press.”

He said that Hamas was still reeling from the losses it suffered during the conflict, “still pulling out bodies from tunnels” destroyed by Israel throughout the 50-day clash. Hamas had dug some 30 tunnels under the Israeli border, and killed 11 Israeli soldiers when its gunmen exited the tunnels inside Israel during the conflict.

Earlier Saturday, Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said Hamas will never give up its weapons or agree to Gaza’s demilitarization.

On Thursday, Israel’s deputy foreign minister warned that Hamas was likely to resume violence if it feels it has made no political gains from upcoming talks in Cairo.

“There are chances that Hamas will restart its routine of violence; this is a possibility we can’t ignore,” Tzahi Hanegbi told Army Radio.

“The resumption of fighting would not happen in the short term, since Hamas will wait for negotiations in Cairo, as well as the October Gaza donors’ conference.

“But when Hamas understands that the war has not brought them the smallest political success, they could resume fighting.”

Hanegbi reiterated that Israel would reject Hamas’s demands for a port and an airport, and said any building materials going into the Strip would be inspected to ensure they were not used to make weapons or militarily infrastructure.

Palestinian analysts say Hamas has gained popularity from the war, because it is seen as one of the only forces willing to stand up to Israel on the battlefield.

A recent opinion poll found that if a presidential election were held now, Hamas’s former Gaza prime minister Haniyeh would easily win, taking 61 percent of the votes compared with 32% for West Bank-based PA president Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel has only negotiated directly with Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. Backed by the so-called Middle East Quartet of the US, EU, UN and Russia, it demands that Hamas recognize Israel, accept previous agreements and renounce terrorism as preconditions for direct negotiations with the Islamist group.