BICOM

Hamas’s political chief Khaled Mashaal has reportedly said that talks are taking place between Israel and Hamas over a long-term Gaza ceasefire and that “positive” progress has been made in negotiations.

Although Israel and Hamas agreed terms to end the fighting of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, there is no long-term arrangement between the two sides to ensure quiet in Gaza and the surrounding Israeli communities. A tense calm has largely prevailed during the past year, although rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on at least six occasions during the past two months, including a Grad rocket near Ashdod.

It was reported earlier this month that former-Prime Minister Tony Blair had met twice in the past few weeks with Mashaal to discuss a possible long-term truce. However, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office unequivocally denied any contact, saying “there have been no meetings with Hamas, not directly, not through another country and not through intermediaries.”

Over the weekend though, Mashaal was quoted by the Arabic news site Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, saying, “So far the contacts seem positive. But so far we haven’t reached any agreement … There are only discussions.” He apparently said that no agreement would be reached “at the expense of the unity of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” with members of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party having accused Hamas of negotiating the isolation of the Gaza Strip with Israel.

In an unrelated development, the Palestinian Wafa news agency said that Abbas is set to resign as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) Executive Committee alongside ten committee members. The PLO is the historic umbrella body of the Palestinian independence movement, although Abbas’s resignation would not impact his role as PA President. Reports say that the move is designed to reconfigure the PLO’s internal structures, via a rare meeting of the Palestinian parliament, which would eventually strengthen Abbas’s grip on power.