Amid a five-day extension of a temporary Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and various Palestinian sanctions, the Palestinian negotiating team in Cairo calls an Israeli proposal for a permanent agreement “terrible,” Elhanan Miller reports.
Speaking to Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen earlier today, unnamed Palestinian sources involved in the negotiations say that the proposal conditions the expansion of activity in Israel’s border crossings with the Gaza Strip on a detailed agreement with the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, and refuses to provide a timetable for their opening. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is not mentioned in the Israeli paper at all, nor are the payment of Hamas employee salaries — held up by Arab Bank, ostensibly due to Israeli and American pressure — and the abolition of the 300 meter (984 foot) no-go zone adjacent to the perimeter fence, which the IDF prohibits Palestinians from entering.
Israel, the sources say, has only agreed to “a gradual removal of the ban as part of a comprehensive ceasefire agreement.”
Israel also rejects the Palestinian demand to expand the permitted fishing zone to 12 miles. The establishment of a seaport and an airport, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners, are issues deemed by Israel “secondary” and postponed to a later stage, the sources say.
Palestinian fishermen arrive back from fishing in the port of Gaza City on August 5, 2014, after a 72-hour truce agreed by Israel and Hamas went into effect. (photo credit: AFP/MAHMUD HAMS)
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