The Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip recently suggested holding indirect negotiations with Israel regarding a long-term cease-fire — known in Arabic as a “hudna” — Haaretz reported. According to the May 6 report, Hamas used various channels to convey the message on several occasions in recent months.
Two days later, Hamas' military wing — the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — tweeted a denial in Hebrew, saying, “Hamas denies reports of a long-term cease-fire with the Zionist occupation.” Nonetheless, a Hamas source confirmed to Al-Monitor that such a proposal exists, similar to the one it had conveyed at the end of the 2014 Israel-Gaza war codenamed Operation Protective Edge. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the 2014 proposal was amended in light of the changed circumstances, but declined to elaborate. Hamas has never made a secret of the fact that its leadership would adopt “significant decisions” if Israel were to lift the siege it imposed on Gaza in 2007, the source added.
The recent failure of the reconciliation talks with the rival Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority (PA) that runs the West Bank dashed Hamas' hopes of easing the economic crisis in Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas officially “buried” the reconciliation in a harsh speech he delivered after the failed March 13 assassination attempt against Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and PA intelligence chief Majid Faraj in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the economic situation in the Strip continues to decline. Hamas leaders’ hopes that Egypt would open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza and thereby ease the effects of the siege are no longer relevant. Egypt had urged the two major Palestinian movements to end their protracted conflict as a condition to opening the crossing. It is currently unwilling to budge from the terms of reconciliation and the demand that PA forces assume control of the Gaza border crossing. This stance by Cairo obviously expresses its distrust in Hamas, and the organization’s leadership fully realizes that.
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