Hamas, the Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist militant organisation that controls the Gaza Strip, has reached a Qatari-mediated deal to end the latest escalation of violence with Israel.
This development comes as the first commercial El Al flight from Tel Aviv arrived in Abu Dhabi after full diplomatic relations was reached between the United Arab Emirates and the Jewish state of Israel, the biblical homeland of the Jews.
After talks with Qatari envoy Mohammed el-Emadi office of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said on Monday that “an understanding was reached to rein in the latest escalation and end [Israeli] aggression against our people”. Qatari envoy Mohammad al-Emadi, has been meeting regularly with Gazan and Israeli officials over the past week.
Israel had been retaliating in the Gaza strip on Hamas sites almost daily since August 6 in response to the attack carried out by Hamas terrorists who used airborne incendiary and fired rockets into southern Israel.
As part of the deal, Hamas has said it will stop sending incendiary balloons over Israel and, “In return, it says that Israel is undertaking to go back to the pre-escalation situation which means allowing fishermen out into the Mediterranean, easing the restriction on goods coming in and also presumably the restoration of fuel supplies to Gaza’s only power station.”
While Israel did not explicitly confirm or endorse the arrival of the peace-deal,it said that it would fully reopen the fishing zone off the coast of the Gaza Strip and the enclave’s border crossings from Tuesday.
However, the Israel’s military liason to the Palestinians said in a statement that the decision will be tested on the ground and if Hamas fails to meet its obligations, Israel would react accordingly.
However, it remains to be seen how long Hamas will hold its end of the bargain and cease terror attacks against Israeli civilians.