Fatah hopes US deal will end Israeli aggression on Gaza, West Bank
Cairo: Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) has expressed its hope that the ceasefire deal recently proposed by the US will end the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the media quoted a Fatah spokesman as saying.
“We hope that US President Joe Biden’s plan will be earnest to stop the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Fatah spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh told Al-Qahera News TV channel in a phone call on Sunday.
He also hoped Biden’s plan would not reinforce the geographical separation between Gaza and the West Bank, Xinhua news agency reported.
Doleh’s remarks came while Egypt is working with Qatar and the US to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas in Gaza. A meeting between concerned parties is expected to be held in Egypt later on Sunday.
The Fatah official said that Israel targets the presence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza and seeks to make the enclave “unfit for life”.
In a joint statement on Saturday, the three mediating countries urged both Israel and Hamas to finalise the ceasefire agreement recently proposed by Washington as a roadmap to end their conflict in Gaza, which has been going on for nearly eight months now.
Although Cairo, Doha, and Washington managed to mediate a week-long Israel-Hamas truce that ended in late November 2023, Israel and Hamas failed to reach another ceasefire agreement after talks in Cairo last month.
Among the points of disagreement were the number and lists of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be released under a swap deal, as well as issues regarding Israel’s partial withdrawal from Gaza to allow free movement of Palestinians in the enclave.
Israel has launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
At least 36,439 Palestinians have been killed and more than 82,627 others injured since then, according to the figures released by the Gaza health authorities.