Palestinian Authority (PA) intelligence chief Majed Faraj has sent a letter to his Israeli counterpart Nadav Argaman warning against any step to end the blockade on the Gaza Strip or alleviate the population’s suffering.
According to the Hebrew media Faraj threatened in his letter to the Shin Bet head that PA president Mahmoud Abbas would halt security coordination with Israel if the latter accepted any deal that ends the blockade on Gaza.
The PA made such threat after Israeli news reports talked recently about Egyptian and Qatari proposals for a renewed long-term truce between Hamas and Israel that leads to an end to the blockade on Gaza.
According to a report by Israel’s Channel 10 on Wednesday there are currently two proposals on the table from Egypt and Qatar.
Israel has reportedly demanded a complete cessation of rocket fire and tunnel building in addition to respecting the security perimeter at the Gaza border and a solution regarding the Israeli captives held in Gaza.
In return Israel will substantially reduce restrictions at Gaza’s border crossings including permitting the entry of goods and services to the impoverished enclave on the condition that they will not be used to boost Hamas’s armed wing. Egypt will also lessen its restrictions at its Rafah crossing with Gaza.
According to the channel’s report Arab officials believe the truce is also of interest to moderate Arab states and that Cairo will take on the responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the agreement.
Officials however have voiced concern that such arrangement might fail as president Mahmoud Abbas will stand against it because he does not want such a deal with Hamas therefore they consider overlooking the role of the Palestinian Authority in this regard.
The issue of Gaza is said to seriously concern the Trump administration reported Channel 10 and they are keen to see clam in Gaza and a response to the humanitarian situation.
However the US wishes to see such progress in Gaza in order to pave the way for its peace plan and is inciting Arab states to publicly declare that Hamas is responsible for the situation in Gaza according to the channel.
The truce proposals have come after weeks of Israeli suppression of protests on the Gaza border.
