BICOM

Hamas officials yesterday underscored their opposition to the current peace talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel in the wake of comments made recently by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

In an interview with the New York Times over the weekend, Abbas suggested that under a peace agreement Israel could conduct a staged military withdrawal from Palestinian areas of the West Bank over a five year period, after which an international peacekeeping force would be put in place. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that, “These ideas don’t express the reality of the Palestinian consensus”, while Hamas official Salah Bardaweel commented, “Such statements [from Abbas] are a preface for liquidating the Palestinian cause and preventing the right of return for Palestinian refugees.” Bardaweel added, “The biggest disaster would be to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” a step which Abbas too continually refuses to take. Israel insists that such mutual recognition lies at the heart of a two-state solution.

The Jerusalem Post claims a Hamas official in the West Bank, Wasfi Qabaha said that the presence of international peacekeepers, as suggested by Abbas, would be “a new Israeli occupation under a different label and shape.” Meanwhile, French daily Le Figaro reports that senior Islamic Jihad official Ahmed al-Mudalal has said the terror group is completely opposed to any peace talks and will do all it can to disrupt any future agreement.

As tension continues on the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the funeral took place yesterday of Tal Nachman, the IDF officer killed in a ‘friendly fire’ accident yesterday morning in the border region. 21-year-old Nachman was shot after an infantry soldier opened fire having mistakenly identified a terrorist who he believed was attacking an IDF vehicle. Head of IDF Southern Command Southern Command Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman has ordered an expert team to investigate the circumstances of Nachman’s death with conclusions expected in the coming days.