I/II. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/15/hamas-negotiators-in-qatar-to-discuss-israel-truce-proposal-with-group/ EU says status quo for Gaza 'not an option' as peace negotiations continue Published August 15, 2014 Associated Press <http://www.ap.org/>
CAIRO - The European Union offered Friday to take charge of Gaza's border crossings and work to prevent illegal arms flows, insisting on a durable truce and saying a return to the status quo for the region "is not an option." As EU foreign ministers held an urgent meeting in Brussels about global conflicts, Hamas negotiators met with the Islamic militant group's leadership in Qatar to discuss a proposal for a long-term truce with Israel. An official said the group was inclined to accept the Egyptian-mediated offer. The Gaza blockade remains the main stumbling block. It has greatly limited the movement of Palestinians in and out of the territory of 1.8 million people, restricted the flow of goods into Gaza and blocked virtually all exports. The EU ministers offered to reactivate and potentially extend its monitoring of Rafah and other border crossings -- if given a mandate by the U.N. Security Council and if it helps living conditions improve in Gaza. In a statement, they said they could also work to prevent arms smuggling and launch a training program for Palestinian Authority police and customs officers to be deployed in Gaza. They said terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm and an overall peace deal remains the main objective. "The situation in the Gaza Strip has been unsustainable for many years and a return to the status quo prior to the latest conflict is not an option," they said. Israel and Hamas are observing a five-day temporary cease-fire in an attempt to allow indirect talks in Cairo to continue. The negotiations are meant to secure a substantive end to the monthlong Gaza war and draw up a roadmap for the coastal territory, which has been hard-hit in the fighting. Hamas is demanding the lifting of the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after the militant group seized power in Gaza in 2007. The proposal is believed to include the lifting of some restrictions, with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces assuming responsibility for border crossings under new arrangements with Egypt. Israeli officials have said little about the negotiations, saying only that the country's security needs must be met. Representatives of Palestinian factions in Cairo said progress was being made. A Hamas official said his group had all but accepted the offer and was currently finalizing the wording. "The proposed agreement states in many places that lifting the blockade will come through measures and mechanisms agreed upon between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and this means Israel will always have the upper hand, and might return the situation on the crossings back to the way it used to be before the war," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were still ongoing. He said the emerging deal would end hostilities and answer some immediate Hamas needs, including providing materials for reconstruction. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent arms smuggling, and officials are reluctant to make any concessions that would allow Hamas to declare victory. Israel, meanwhile, has demanded that Hamas be disarmed -- a non-starter for the militant group -- or at the very least be prevented from re-arming. Hamas has recovered from previous rounds of violence with Israel, including a major three-week air and ground operation in January 2009 and another weeklong air offensive in 2012. It still has an arsenal of several thousand rockets, some of which can reach major cities deep inside Israel. The current cease-fire is the longest to be declared since the war broke out last month. The fighting has so far killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. Israel has lost 67 people, all but three of them soldiers. II. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/hamas-peace-deal-must-meet-people-demands-2014814113134300982.html Hamas: Peace deal must meet people's demands Palestinian group's delegate at Cairo talks lists demands Israel has to meet before fighting in Gaza is halted. Last updated: 15 Aug 2014 04:12 Hamas has said it will not sign a peace deal with Israel that fails to meet the demands of its people. Khalil al-Haya, the Palestinian group's negotiator at the talks in Egypt seeking to stop fighting in Gaza, said on Thursday they were negotiating with a "difficult side versed in procrastination". "We are keen on having an agreement concluded. It must satisfy the demands of our people," said Haya during a public address in which he briefed the people of Gaza on the progress of the talks. Haya said Hamas would continue to demand the end of what he called "unjust incursions" and a "permanent lifting" of the siege imposed by Israel on Gaza in 2006. The comments came hours after the truce between Hamas and Israel was extended for five days as negotiators from both sides press ahead with the talks in Cairo. Members of the Palestinian delegation said they would return to Cairo on Saturday night to begin more talks on Sunday. Egyptian and Palestinian sources told the Reuters news agency Israel had tentatively agreed to allow some supplies into Gaza and relax curbs on the cross-border movement of people and goods, subject to certain conditions. "It was a war of necessity not a war of choice. We had no choice but to defend ourselves," Haya said. "We are united and are unified in blood and dead bodies. We are one front, one side, one body ... We are all enaged in one battle defending our people. The war is the beginning of liberation." Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Gaza, said Haya was vague about the precise stage the talks have reached. *Five-day truce* A renewed truce between the two sides appeared to be holding despite a shaky start. The Israeli military on Thursday said fighters in Gaza breached the truce and fired eight rockets at Israel and that in response, aircraft targeted multiple "rocket launchers and terror sites" across the enclave. Hamas official Izzat Reshiq denied the Palestinians had breached the truce, and denounced Israel's air strikes as "a violation of the calm". No casualties were reported in any of the incidents, and hostilities had ended by dawn. A halt in more than a month of fighting, in which 1,945 Palestinians and 67 Israelis have been killed, had been set to expire at midnight on Monday. If it holds, the five day ceasefire will be the longest period peace since hostilities began. The violence is the deadliest since the two sides fought a three-week war in the winter of 2008-9. At the last minute, the Palestinians announced the truce extension so both sides could work out a long-term ceasefire, mediated by Egypt. "Israel has accepted the ceasefire extension," said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bridging the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians in order to secure a permanent ceasefire has proved to be difficult. "It is the first time we have a five-day ceasefire. The previous ones have been three days. It has been a rocky start," reported our correspondent. "The negotiations went right up to the wire before the Palestinians made their announcement," he added. "Then, within a few minutes, there was rocket fire on the Wednesday night, and then early into Thursday, in the first three minutes of the ceasefire, there were at least three rockets entering Israeli territory and the response was at least three airstrikes by the Israelis ... We have since then what appears to be a ceasefire." Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Al-Aqsa Hamas television on Wednesday that the group would insist on "lifting the Gaza blockade" and reducing movement restrictions on the territory's 1.8 million residents, as a prerequisite to a "permanent calm". Source: Al Jazeera and agencies -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
