DHAKA: As a temporary lull in fighting seems to be holding, a political battle rages on in Cairo, as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators try to hash out details that could cement a long-term truce.
Hamas’ political leader Khaled Mashaal took to the airwaves on Saturday afternoon to weigh in on the five-week-long war embroiling the Gaza Strip and the five-day cease-fire, which was agreed on by both sides on Wednesday.
The conflict in Gaza ‘was not a war of choice’, the Hamas chief told Al Jazeera English in a televised interview, reports The Jerusalem Post.
‘Not of the Palestinian people and not of Hamas. It was forced upon us.’
Pinning the blame for the war on Israel, he said the Jewish State exploited the situation in the West Bank, when three teens were kidnapped and murdered, to attack Gaza for ‘its own domestic calculations’.
‘It wanted to take revenge on Hamas and the Palestinian people in Gaza,’ he stated, adding that the Gazans were defending themselves.
He laid the responsibility for the ‘bloodshed’ – which left ‘2000 Palestinians dead and 10,000 wounded’ – at the hands of the ‘Israeli occupation’.
At the same time, on the eve of the resumption of the cease-fire talks in Cairo, Hamas officials said that Egypt’s latest proposals for a long-term truce with Israel were unacceptable.
BDST: 0017 HRS, AUG 17, 2014
