Gaza City – Hamas played down on Sunday the possibility that the energy crisis in the Gaza Strip would lead to renewed hostilities with Israel and said relations between the Islamist group and Egypt were improving.
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“We in Hamas do not initiate wars and we do not expect one, this is our political assessment,” Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy leader in the Gaza Strip, told reporters in Gaza. The two adversaries have fought three wars, most recently in 2014.
“We do not expect war because we are not interested and the occupation also say they are not interested,” he said, using the group’s term for Israel.
Tensions over power supplies in recent weeks have led to speculation there could be a new conflict between the two sides.
Israel said last week it would reduce electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is pressing Hamas to relinquish control of the enclave seized in 2007, limited how much it pays for power to the area.
The decision was expected to shorten by 45 minutes the daily average of four hours of power that Gaza’s 2 million residents receive from an electricity grid dependent on Israeli supplies, the officials said.
The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority blamed Hamas’s failure to reimburse it for electricity for the reduction in power supplies.
Separately, a Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Sunday that Cairo had agreed in talks last week with a Hamas delegation to sell the group fuel to get the Gaza Strip’s sole power station back online.
Fuel for the small plant ran out two months ago, and a resumption of operations could give Gazans power for eight hours a day.
There was no immediate word from Egyptian officials on whether a deal had been struck, and Hayya declined to confirm any agreement.
He said Hamas’s newly elected Gaza leader, Yehya al-Sinwar, had met in Cairo with Egyptian officials and discussed securing the frontier with Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, where Islamist State fighters have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
Egypt has accused Hamas of aiding the militants, an allegation the group denies, and has kept its border crossing with the Gaza Strip largely closed. Israel also maintains tight restrictions along its frontier with the enclave.
Hamas-appointed security chief Tawfiq Abu Naeem, one of the delegates to Cairo, recently toured the Egyptian border and issued new orders to tighten security there.
“Securing borders is a joint interest. We are keen and we have the determination and the ability to prevent any harm to reach out for Egypt from Gaza,” Hayya said.
Don’t believe them a word
There is no reason why you should trust them. I do not trust anyone. But that does not mean you cannot cut a deal with them.
Yes, I meet with honest Muslims every day. Thank you for asking. If you do not make a deal with your neighbors, you will make endless war with them. Israel may win for a hundred years. When it finally loses, all will be lost.
It is much better to make peace when you are on top than to have peace forced upon you when you are on the bottom.
Zionism is doomed. No point in fighting for it. True Torah ad non liberalism is the answer.
#5 Does it make sense to make peace with people who do not want your destruction?
So can you think of any time in history where countries only made peace with nations that like them? Sort of by definition, you make peace with enemies.
It’s not about liking them or becoming friends. There have been countless efforts. none ever included anything beyond Israel making concessions, never the Palis. and Israel kept its side, while the Palis responded to “goodwill” with rockets, mortars, suicide bombs, stabbings, etc. If an enemy is agreeing to cease all hostilities, you can negotiate. If an enemy is willing to make concessions, you can negotiate. If they refuse all, and remain the enemy, there is no partner.
We all observed (or learned in history classes) about armistice, treaties, etc. that actually ended a state of war. With the Palestinians, nothing ever produced a positive result. So we should engage in a process because the words sound good, but have no actual result? Not too bright.
Yes, it is not about liking them or making friends. It is not about trusting them. It is about making peace with them.