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Wednesday 23 July 2014 - 11:44

PLO backs Hamas conditions for truce with Israel

Story Code : 401102
PLO backs Hamas conditions for truce with Israel
“The Gaza demands of stopping the aggression and lifting the blockade in all its forms are the demands of the entire Palestinian people and they represent the goal that the Palestinian leadership has dedicated all its power to achieve,” senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo said in Ramallah on Wednesday.
 
Hamas has offered its ceasefire proposal, which includes the removal of the Israeli blockade of Gaza Strip and the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
 
The terms of the proposed 10-year-long ceasefire also include the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Most of those inmates were freed during a prisoner swap deal in 2011, but Israel rearrested them soon after.
 
“We are confident Gaza will not be broken as long as our people are standing beside it to support it through all possible means until the invaders understand that our great people inside the homeland and outside will not leave Gaza alone,” the PLO official added.
 
The president of the Palestinian unity government, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Tuesday night that Israel is violating all international laws and human morality in its offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip.
 
“We will pursue the perpetrators of the crimes against our people, until they are punished,” Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
 
He further said that Israel’s goal is to “undermine the internal unity and reconciliation, but we will continue in this way.”
 
Hamas says Tel Aviv should recognize the Palestinian national unity government made up of both Hamas and Fatah factions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to recognize the unity government.
 
Israel unleashed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on July 8. Over the past 15 days, Israeli warplanes have been hitting numerous sites in the Gaza Strip, demolishing homes and burying families in the rubble. Israeli tanks also began a ground offensive against the impoverished enclave on July 17.
 
At least 647 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 4,000 others injured in Israel’s attacks during the past 15 days.
 
According to Israeli sources, around 30 Israelis have also been killed in the war. Palestinian resistance movement Hamas puts the number at 40.
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