Blaming Abbas, Egypt may end Gaza talks

Amid mounting tensions between Israel and Hamas along the Gaza border, Egyptian intelligence officials may withdraw from diplomatic efforts.

Attempts to reconcile rival factions Hamas, which rules Gaza, and Fatah, which controls Palestinian Authority territory in Judea and Samaria, have been unsuccessful since Hamas violently routed Fatah from Gaza in 2007.

A Hamas delegation headed by deputy political leader Saleh Arouri and senior Fatah representatives were in Cairo last week for meetings with Egyptian intelligence officials and were supposed to stay several days, but departed after 24 hours. A senior Egyptian defense official told Israel Hayom this was the reason for Hamas’s intensified weekly riots along the border with Israel.

“If Egypt ceases its involvement in the talks, a military confrontation will very likely erupt in Gaza. Hamas will direct the pressure at Israel,” the official said. He added that Israel and Egypt have been coordinating recent diplomatic steps.

The official said Egypt’s plan would begin with a cease-fire and reduced tensions between Israel and Hamas along the Gaza border. If the cease-fire held, Hamas and Israel would implement a prisoner exchange. Israel would receive the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, and information on Ethiopian-Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Hisham al-Sayed, who entered Gaza voluntarily in 2014 and 2015.

In phase two, hundreds of millions of dollars would be transferred to Gaza for infrastructure and civilian projects. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would open more frequently, and Israel would ease other restrictions, including on Gaza’s fishing industry.

The third phase would implement Hamas-Fatah reconciliation and transfer civil control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in stages. Hamas’s military wing and other armed factions in Gaza would disarm and their members would be integrated into the PA’s security force.

“While Hamas was ready to discuss the plan up to the phase where its military wing would have to disarm, [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas refused to even listen to it and asked [Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi] to shelve the plan immediately,” the Egyptian official told Israel Hayom.

Egyptian and Palestinian officials said that Abbas warned that if Egypt continued to mediate between Hamas and Israel while ignoring the PA, the PA would impose sanctions on Gaza, revoking its budget and declaring it a “rebel area.”

A senior official in Ramallah told Israel Hayom, “Abbas won’t permit negotiations with Hamas as the sovereign in Gaza. Hamas is exploiting the budget cuts from Ramallah to direct the pressure and unrest in Gaza at Israel.”

El-Sissi sent a calming message to Israel: “Preserving peace is no less a challenge than preserving war. In both situations, Egypt has made it clear that when it chooses, it can meet the challenge.”

Meanwhile, dozens of incendiary balloons were launched from Gaza into Israel over the weekend, sparking seven fires on Friday and four more on Saturday. Shimon Barak, a famer in southern Israel, said his children saw the balloons land near the family’s greenhouses.

Some 20,000 rioters gathered along the Gaza border last Friday, hurling explosive devices at IDF soldiers. They also burned tires and some breached the border fence.

IDF forces responded with riot dispersal measures and followed the army’s rules of engagement. IDF aircraft carried out two attacks in northern Gaza.