GAZA CITY: Hamas’s exiled deputy leader said yesterday the group could be forced to negotiate directly with Israel, ahead of planned talks in Cairo to consolidate a truce.
But an Israeli minister dismissed any possibility of talking directly with the Islamist movement, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Hamas itself later reiterated its policy was not to talk with Israel.
Hamas does not recognise Israel, and Israel denounces Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation, and the two sides have never had any direct contact.
Following weeks of indirect, Egyptian brokered negotiations, Israel and Hamas agreed to halt their fire in Gaza on August 26 after 50 days of war, their deadliest confrontation in years.
The indirect talks are set to resume mid-September to discuss longer-term issues.
Asked if Hamas would contemplate negotiating directly with Israel, Mussa Abu Marzuq, the movement’s exiled deputy leader, said it might be needed.
“If the situation remains as it is now... Hamas could find itself forced to do this,” he told the Palestinian Al Quds TV, referring to the dire humanitarian situation and continued blockade on Gaza.
Under terms of the truce deal, Israel pledged an immediate easing of restrictions on goods and construction materials being shipped in to Gaza, but so far, officials say there has been little change on the ground.
“From a legal (Islamic) perspective there is nothing wrong with negotiating with the occupation,” he said, indicating it could be necessary in order to guarantee the “rights” of the people of Gaza.
“Many of the issues that have been taboo within the movement could be up for discussion,” he said of Hamas’s historic refusal to negotiate with Israel. But Israel’s Science Minister Yaakov Peri dismissed outright any possibility of negotiating directly with Hamas.
“We will conduct indirect talks with Hamas through Egypt, but will do so in different rooms,” Peri said, describing the way the Gaza truce talks were run over the past two months. Hamas later reiterated that “talking with the Zionist enemy is not the policy of the movement.”
“Nor has it been put forth for discussion,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Hamas yesterday began paying a months-long backlog of salaries to more than 40,000 of its employees in the Gaza Strip, the finance ministry announced.
Hamas, which formally governed Gaza until early June, had been unable to pay many of its employees from October 2013 due to a biting financial crisis caused by Egypt’s closure of cross-border tunnels through which most of Islamist movement’s financial support was delivered. Other employees had received only a partial salary.
It was the first time in months the employees had been paid, with workers each receiving between 1,000-4,500 shekels ($276-$1,240/¤215-960), depending on their pay grade, the finance ministry said. Although the Hamas government technically stood down on June 2, handing over power to a Ramallah-based government of national consensus, it has remained the de facto power in Gaza. Hamas officials, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was able to begin paying the backlog due to tax monies it had collected, enabling it to cover partial payment of all salaries from October through to May. Political analyst Mukhaimer Abu Saada said funds were also likely to have come from aid pouring into Gaza during and after a bloody 50-day conflict with Israel that ended August 26, as well as from friendly donors such as Qatar. Hamas has insisted that the national consensus government headed by prime minister Rami Hamdallah take the employees onto its payroll.
In June, Qatar said it would contribute a total of $60m (¤44 m) towards the payment of the Gaza salaries, though there have been no reports yet of money being transferred.
Cuba has sent six tonnes of drugs and medical supplies to Gaza, devastated from seven weeks of war with Israel that killed more than 2,100 people, official media reported.
AFP
