Hamas’s deputy politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, who previously was prime minister of Hamas’s government, slammed how Gaza has been marginalized from the peace process after his terrorist group violently seized control of Gaza in 2007 after overwhelmingly winning in elections.
Speaking in a telephone speech for a Hamas student rally at Al-Najah National University in Shechem (Nablus) on Sunday, Haniyeh said “the struggle in all its aspects is a strategic choice of the Hamas movement. The struggle has political, military, security, media, legal and public expressions.”
“There won’t be a (Palestinian) state and there won’t be any sort of state without Gaza, and there is no existence to a Palestinian state without Al-Quds,” said Haniyeh, referencing the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
The call for Gaza to be included in peace talks comes as Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been calling for renewed talks, after he torpedoed the last set of negotiations last April by signing a unity deal with Hamas – a “unity” that has been fraught with coup attempts and massive in-fighting between the two rivals.
There have been many reports of negotiations for a three to five year ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, but Ziyad Zaza, also a member of Hamas’s political bureau, denied the reports.
According to Zaza, the reports consist of statements made by international and local figures, but they haven’t reached the level of plans and proposals.
Therefore Hamas is not dealing with the topic until concrete proposals are formed, said Zaza, who called for all nations interested in intervening to submit official ceasefire proposals to Hamas.
The reports on ceasefire deals were strengthened by the PA, which revealed last month that Israel decided to allow Portland cement into Gaza, reversing its ban on the dual-use materials despite evidence that Hamas is using such materials to rebuild its terror tunnel infrastructure.
Leaked documents purportedly from the ceasefire negotiations indicated Hamas was demanding an ease of imports as part of the ceasefire extension.
IDF Southern Command head General Sami Turgeman confirmed last week that Hamas has indeed started rebuilding its terror tunnels into Israel meant to attack Israeli civilian centers.
