Gaza peace unlikely as Hamas refuses to disarm
30 Aug 2014 5:58 AM IST
‘The weapons of the resistance are sacred and we will not accept that they be on the agenda’ of future negotiations with Israel, the exiled Meshaal told a news conference on on Thursday in Doha.
Israel has consistently linked the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, devastated during its 50-day war with Hamas that ended last Tuesday, to the territory’s demilitarisation.
‘It has become abundantly clear that unless Hamas is disarmed and its tools of control removed, there can be no peace and security for either Israelis or Palestinians,’ Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned, quoted on his ministry’s website.
France’s President Francois Hollande also backs the disarmament of the coastal strip where Hamas is de facto ruler.
‘Gaza can no longer be an army base for Hamas, or an open-air prison for its inhabitants. One should move towards a progressive lifting of the blockade and the demilitarisation of the territory,’ he told French diplomats on Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming victory over the Palestinian militants.
‘Hamas was hit very hard and there is here a military achievement of the highest order, as well as a diplomatic achievement because they dropped all of their demands,’ he told a visiting delegation from the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
‘They got to this point the hard way. They kept testing us and every time we struck them but the last time, given this accumulation of blows, they were persuaded,’ he said.
Israel has consistently linked the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, devastated during its 50-day war with Hamas that ended last Tuesday, to the territory’s demilitarisation.
‘It has become abundantly clear that unless Hamas is disarmed and its tools of control removed, there can be no peace and security for either Israelis or Palestinians,’ Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned, quoted on his ministry’s website.
France’s President Francois Hollande also backs the disarmament of the coastal strip where Hamas is de facto ruler.
‘Gaza can no longer be an army base for Hamas, or an open-air prison for its inhabitants. One should move towards a progressive lifting of the blockade and the demilitarisation of the territory,’ he told French diplomats on Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming victory over the Palestinian militants.
‘Hamas was hit very hard and there is here a military achievement of the highest order, as well as a diplomatic achievement because they dropped all of their demands,’ he told a visiting delegation from the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
‘They got to this point the hard way. They kept testing us and every time we struck them but the last time, given this accumulation of blows, they were persuaded,’ he said.
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