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The Qatar channel between Gaza and Israel

Qatar, which has taken upon itself major construction projects in the Gaza Strip, has become an indirect communication channel between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal uses his mobile phone in his office in Doha November 29, 2012. Meshaal said the de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state won by his rival Mahmoud Abbas should be seen alongside Gaza's latest conflict with Israel as a single, bold strategy that could empower all Palestinians. Meshaal said the short war which claimed 162 Palestinian lives and five Israelis was concluded on terms set by the Palestinian Islamist movement and ended its isolation, creating a new mood that
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Hamas has already come to terms with the fact that its southern border with Egypt — including its only gate to the outside world, the Rafah crossing — will not open up in the near future. After the initial shock and anxiety over the anti-Hamas mood prevalent among the new Egyptian regime, the time has come for the movement's leadership to recognize and accept this. In the absence of any other option, vital communication channels with the Israeli side were developed to ensure that life goes on as normally as possible in the Gaza Strip.

One Israeli security source described the situation thusly: “Hamas realized that if they have any chance of finding a light at the end of the tunnel, it won’t be in the Rafah region, but actually at the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings, which link Gaza to Israel.”

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