According to the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper, Gaza-based group officials met in Qatar to discuss truce proposal
Leading members of Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas convened in Qatar over the past several days to discuss a proposal for a long-term ceasefire with Israel, the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper reported Monday.
According to Palestinian officials quoted by the paper, Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzouk set out to the Qatari capital of Doha on Saturday in the hopes of finalizing a three-to-five year truce with the Jewish state. The truce proposal, which is backed by both Qatar and Turkey, is based on an outline formulated by UN special envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov, according to the NRG news site.
The report added that Abu Marzouk held a series of meetings in Qatar with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal as well as other senior officials in the organization.
The truce proposal reportedly includes a clause regarding the establishment of a seaport in Gaza, NRG reported. The port, according to the proposal, will be subject to Israeli or international supervision.
The UN Human Rights Council has been conducting an investigation into the actions of both Israel and Palestinian organizations during last summer’s bloody conflict. Its report is expected to be published in the coming days, and the council is scheduled to debate it on June 29. The 50-day war is said to have killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to Palestinian sources in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip; and 73 Israelis, including 66 soldiers.
In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the July-August Gaza war against Hamas, calling it both “lawful” and “legitimate.”
The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering. Israel says that terrorists’ use of schools to store weapons, and the firing of rockets from the vicinity of the sites, forced it to target those areas.
The Jewish state has long had a stormy relationship with the UNHRC, which it sees as anti-Israeli, and fiercely opposed the Gaza probe from the start.
As reported by The Times of Israel