Gaza- Spokesman of Hamas Movement in Gaza Strip Dr. Ismail Redwan has warned that the region would witness wide-scale security confusion if the unjust siege on the Palestinian people persisted and affirmed that the declared truce would collapse if IOF aggressions in the West Bank didn’t stop.
Redwan remarks came in an interview with the PIC correspondent in Gaza Strip where he also stressed that Hamas has given up a lot of its privileges just to bring talks on unity government to success.
Talking about the truce Redwan asserted that PA premier Ismail Haneyya succeeded in convincing the Palestinian resistance factions into heeding PA chief Mahmoud Abbas’ call to calm down; but the factions agreed to give “partial” truce to “test Israel’s intentions”.
“Haneyya maintains good relations with all factions that made him a trusted man especially that they know very well who Haneyya is” Redwan pointed out.
He asserted that the truce was limited to halting missile attacks on Israeli settlements in return for a halt in all forms of aggression on the part of the IOF troops on Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
However Redwan confirmed Israel hasn’t “a word of honor” and doesn’t live up to its word which according to him was the reason that made Palestinian factions accept only a partial truce.
When asked to comment on Abbas’ call on Palestinian factions not to respond to IOF aggressions in the West Bank Redwan retorted “It is up to the resistance factions themselves to evaluate the truce they gave and to take the actions they deem appropriate to retaliate to those atrocities in the West Bank”.
“Although Fatah faction hadn’t fully participated in blocking the IOF troops’ invasion of Beit Hanun city last month offshoots of Fatah who still believe in the resistance option took part in defending the city” Redwan underlined.
PA unity government:
The Hamas’ spokesman furthermore underlined that inter-Palestinian talks on unity government were going on well before they hit a snag as a result of Fatah’s reneging on previous understandings with Hamas in addition to undermining parliamentary customs that give the biggest bloc in the PLC all the right to get the lion’s share in the government.
“Although that group within Fatah is small in number; it sometime prevail and influence the faction’s decisions which call on prudent figures in the faction to stop them for the benefit of national unity” Redwan underscored.
He shrugged off calls by that group of Fatah to form a PA government of independents saying “Palestinian people are a politicized people as a result of the circumstances they live and therefore talking about independent figures in the Palestinian community becomes irrelevant”.
Nonetheless he explained Hamas has agreed to the idea of nominating a number of “independent” figures in the unity government.
Hamas Redwan further explained was and still is against attempts by Fatah figures including Abbas to attach talks on coalition government to issues like Gilad Shalit’s case and the truce elaborating that those issues should be dealt with accordingly and should be separated from the unity talks which is a “Palestinian impetrative”.
Possible options:
Answering a question on what will be the options of Hamas if the unity talks collapsed Redwan stressed that all options will be open before the Palestinian people to “get back their legal rights through all available and sanctioned means”.
He also warned of possible wide-scale instability in the region if the economic siege on the Palestinian people persisted and not lifted very soon.
The spokesman moreover cleared it out that it was the Israeli occupation government that hinders the prisoners’ swap deal to free their captured soldier Shalit.
Talking on the PLO’s executive committee Redwan urged it to look for the good of the Palestinian people and not to cede any of their legal rights in historical Palestine including the right of return for Palestinian refugees among other rights which some Palestinian figures like Yasser Abed Rabbo member of the committee had dropped in the infamous Geneva Initiative which he engineered.
