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Report: Hamas considering long-term ceasefire with Israel

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A report in the Palestinian media suggests that leading Hamas officials are meeting in Qatar to consider a United Nations’ (UN) proposal for a three to five year truce with Israel.

The report in yesterday’s edition of the Al-Quds daily claims that senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk left for Qatar to meet with Hamas’s overall leader Khaled Mashaal and other prominent figures. The NRG website says that the proposal under discussion has been formulated by UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov and includes the prospect of an off-shore Gaza seaport under Israeli or international supervision.

It is not the first time that such a prospect has been mooted. In April, Times of Israel analyst Avi Issacharoff said that Qatar’s ambassador to the Gaza Strip had visited Israel to discuss a potential five-year cessation of hostilities and the creation of a floating harbour off the Gaza coast with imports monitored by NATO. Similarly, Haaretz analyst Amos Harel reported last month that intermittent talks between Israel and Hamas have been taking place for several months via a variety of intermediaries, with a view to brokering a long-term ceasefire.

During 2015, Israel has introduced a range of measures meant to ease movement in and out of the Gaza Strip, in order to aid reconstruction following the destruction of last summer’s conflict. The amount of water Israel supplies to Gaza was doubled after a coastal aquifer had become ineffective. Israel also increased the number of entry and exit permits to Gaza merchants and has also facilitated the export of Gaza produce to the West Bank, an important market for the Gaza economy.

However, reconstruction in Gaza since Operation Protective Edge has been hampered by a paucity of promised international funds. Meanwhile, European diplomats have also criticised political squabbling between Fatah and Hamas for the lack of progress. At the same time, Hamas is widely reported to have test-fired new rockets and to be rebuilding its complex network of attack tunnels.