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On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas spoke with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal as renewed fighting continued in the Gaza Strip following the failure of the Egyptian-brokered truce deal.
The two spoke in Doha, where Meshaal is currently operating from, and were hosted by the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, an important supporter of Hamas, the QNA news agency said. Reportedly, the three were speaking for over three hours, and will continue talks with a two-way meeting Meshaal and Abbas.
Azzam al-Ahmed, the head of Palestine’s negotiating team at the truce talks, senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat, and Palestinian Authority security chief Majid Faraj joined the meeting, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. Meshaal’s deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk, who had been a part of the talks, is also expected to join them.
Hamas’ armed wing had declared that the truce efforts were over on Wednesday, with Israel carrying out a failed assassination attempt on leader Mohammed Deif, killing his two children and his wife.
“There will be no return to talks after today and any move in this direction will never achieve any result”, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said.
Israeli airstrikes on Thursday have killed three more senior Hamas commanders. The overall death toll in Gaza now stands at 2,075, with UN statistics suggesting that almost 75% of the dead were civilians. On the Israeli side of the border, 67 people, most of them soldiers, have been killed; five of them were killed by friendly fire.
The current conflict is the deadliest confrontation between Hamas and Israel since the second Palestinian intifada from 2000 to 2005. To bring the conflict to an end, Palestine wants an end to the eight-year blockade of the Gaza Strip and the opening of a seaport and an airport. Israel, on the other hand, is demanding the complete demilitarization of the Palestinian enclave.
