BICOM

The UN’s Middle East envoy is in Egypt for talks to prevent further violence in Gaza.

Nickolay Mladenov is working on a comprehensive plan between Hamas, the de factor ruler of the Gaza Strip, and Israel that includes a ceasefire, humanitarian relief, the return of Palestinian Authority (PA) control to Gaza and new infrastructure projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mladenov has had meetings in the past few days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip. A Fatah delegation arrived in Cairo yesterday. The delegation consists of top Fatah officials Azzam al-Ahmed, Rouhi Fattouh and Hussein al-Sheikh and PA General Intelligence chief Majed Faraj.

An Israeli security source told Kan radio news that neither side is interested in a conflict and noted that the current situation is somewhere between an escalation and an arrangement, and that it is unclear which of them would take place.

A Gaza news agency said that Hamas rejected Mladenov’s plan, which does not end sanctions on Gaza or lift the naval blockade, and Hamas has issued further demands.

Mladenov’s plan proposes a separate negotiation channel to agree a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas – one of the most contentious current issues. Hamas currently holds the bodies of two IDF soldiers from the summer of 2014 as well as two Israeli citizens. Israel has refused to agree substantial relief measures until they are returned.

Five Palestinians were killed by IDF soldiers during violent protests along the Gaza border over the weekend. Three were shot on Friday during protests that involved 7,000 rioters in several locations close to the security fence. The rioters threw rocks and rolled burning tires. In addition, IDF troops identified several suspects who approached the security fence, sabotaged it and then returned to the Gaza Strip.

On Friday night shots were fired at IDF soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip. In response, an IDF aircraft targeted a Hamas observation post. Two Palestinians were killed on Saturday night in an IAF attack in Jabalya area in the northern Gaza Strip, after 13 fires were started in Israel from flying firebombs launched from Gaza.