A senior Hamas official in the occupied West Bank has denied that a long-term truce with Israel is imminent. Hassan Yousef insisted that the media claims to the contrary are nothing more than “imaginative reports”, Quds Press reported on Tuesday.
The Israeli occupation authorities, he explained, have evaluated the situation in Gaza and recognised that it is an “explosive barrel” because of the strict siege and the difficulty of life there. “Israel has recognised that this could blow up in its face,” said Yousef. “This has pushed the government to send messages that it is ready to end the siege and facilitate the life of our people in the Strip because the expected explosion would harm Israel considerably.”
Asked about Hamas’s position regarding a potential truce, Yousef said that any such deal would just be to facilitate the life of the people in Gaza, not in return for any political price. He stressed that political moves like that are the responsibility of the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and the presidency. He also reiterated that Hamas had briefed all of the Palestinian factions about the latest of its achievements in this area in order to make any potential deal part of a national agreement.
According to the Palestinian MP, any agreement with the Israeli occupation, mainly the sea passage to Gaza Port, would be regarded as an achievement of Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and the persistence of its people. “Neither the PA nor any other country could push the Israeli occupation to commit to this,” he stressed.
Concluding his remarks, he pointed out that any deal does not mean the separation of the West Bank from the Gaza Strip. “We are not those who divide the country or tear it into parts… a united Palestinian is our choice.”