GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says Tuesday that an end to Israel’s more than decade-long blockade of Gaza was “around the corner,” as talk of a possible truce deal intensifies.
Indirect negotiations between Gaza’s Hamas rulers and Israel brokered by Egyptian and UN officials have reportedly included discussion on easing the blockade, but by no means a complete lifting of it.
Speaking to thousands of Palestinians during prayers for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, Haniyeh doesn’t directly address the possibility of a truce, mooted in Israeli and Palestinian media for weeks.
“Thanks to these marches and resistance, we are just around the corner from closing the page on this unjust blockade,” he says, referring to months of deadly clashes along the Gaza-Israel border.
He seems to be referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s concerns over a truce that does not include his internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank.
Abbas’s Fatah and Hamas have been deeply divided for more than a decade.
Haniyeh says any agreement would come “with a national consensus and an Arab safety net in order to establish the necessary safeguards to implement what is agreed upon.”
“We are on our way to ending this unjust blockade of Gaza,” he says.
— AFP
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh gives a speech on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Gaza City on August 21, 2018. (AFP Photo/Anas Baba)
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