BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office yesterday said that there is no truth in Arabic and Turkish media reports that talks are taking place with Hamas over details of a long-term ceasefire.

Although Israel and Hamas agreed terms to end the fighting of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, there is no long-term arrangement between the two sides to ensure quiet in Gaza and the surrounding Israeli communities. A tense calm has largely prevailed during the past year, although rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on at least six occasions during the past two months, including a Grad rocket near Ashdod.

It was reported last week that former-Prime Minister Tony Blair has met twice in the past few weeks with Hamas’s political chief Khaled Mashaal to discuss a possible long-term truce. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that other Palestinian factions had been updated on efforts to achieve a sustainable truce with Israel. The London-based Al-Hayat claimed that as part of the agreement, Israel is willing to see the establishment of a sea passage between Cyprus and the Gaza Strip.

However, in an unequivocal statement, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday that, “Israel is officially clarifying that there have been no meetings with Hamas, not directly, not through another country and not through intermediaries.” Haaretz though suggests that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was told by Blair of his talks with Mashaal and asked to be updated on their “feasibility.”

Meanwhile, Egypt yesterday opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for the first time in four months. During that period, Israel has permitted the entry of numerous goods and construction material into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana crossings.  However, Hamas is thought to be restocking its arsenal of rockets and constructing fresh attack tunnels. Earlier this week, Israeli border authorities intercepted two tons of fiberglass hidden in a shipment of clothes and material, thought to be intended for use in building long-range rockets.