Information is leaking out slowly, but each new tidbit seems to indicate that Israel and Hamas are in serious discussions about reaching a long-term agreement. Ahmed Youssef, who was chief of staff for the movement’s former leader, Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed to Al-Hayat Aug. 18 that Israel has a detailed outline for a truce formulated by Tony Blair, the Quartet’s former emissary to the region. Based on what Youssef said, it seems that Hamas is prepared to accept the outline and they are now waiting for Israel to agree, so that the negotiating teams could be formed and the practical details of the agreement could be hammered out. Youssef added that a Hamas delegation is now waiting for Egypt’s approval to set out for a series of meetings with senior officials in Cairo, Turkey and Qatar, at which they would discuss the truce outline.
In an interview with France 24, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki confirmed that an agreement is taking shape that will end the siege on the Gaza Strip. “We don't know if it will happen tomorrow or in a month from now," he told the interviewer, "but all indications are telling us that yes, there is a serious level of negotiations. There are mediators who are doing their utmost to reach this agreement.”
Senior Palestinian Authority figures are closely and anxiously following the news. As far as they are concerned, an agreement between Israel and Hamas would mean perpetuating the separation of Gaza from the West Bank, or in more blunt terms, creating two states for one people. Such concern formed the background of the meeting that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked to have in the PA headquarters in Ramallah with Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog. At this Aug. 18 meeting, Abbas expressed his concerns about such an agreement, claiming that it would be especially damaging to his own status and that of the Fatah movement as the representatives of the Palestinian people.
Herzog responded by speaking out against such an agreement. “I have no problem with achieving calm in Gaza, but it must be achieved in coordination with Abbas and through negotiations that will allow him to re-enter to the Gaza Strip,” he said in an interview with Israeli news site Walla.
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