Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tells Gaza’s residents in an official statement Thursday that Israel might agree to the construction of a seaport, an airport and industrial zones, and the creation of 40,000 jobs in those zones.
But, he adds, it has a few conditions: Hamas must return three Israelis held hostage by the terror group, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who died in battle during the 2014 war in the territory, and agree to Gaza’s disarmament and erasing the article in its covenant that calls for Israel’s destruction.
Liberman’s offer is published in Arabic on the website of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
Gaza has been in an Israeli-Egyptian economic chokehold since Hamas’s takeover of the Strip in 2007. Israel says its blockade is meant to prevent Hamas from rearming between periodic wars, while Egypt accuses Hamas of abetting the Muslim Brotherhood during the country’s civil war in recent years, as well as supporting Islamic State affiliates in Sinai engaged in an insurgency against the Egyptian army in the peninsula.
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 16, 2017
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