Qatar's attempt to end a growing crisis in the Palestinian territories appeared to end in failure on Tuesday after Hamas rejected the plan's key demands that it recognize Israel and renounce violence.
The rival Fatah group declared the Qatari initiative a failure and blamed Hamas for the breakdown in negotiations -- the latest setback to international efforts to moderate the Islamic militant group and restore much-needed aid to the Palestinians.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government, said the group is ready to continue the negotiations, insisting that "the way is not blocked."
Hamad said his group has reservations about Qatar's proposal for a new Palestinian national unity government that would recognize Israel's right to exist. He also said his group is not ready to give up its armed struggle against Israel.
"We differentiate between resistance and terrorism," he said.
Hamad spoke a day after Qatar's foreign minister presented his country's six-point plan in separate meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. The minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassem al Thani, left the area early on Tuesday.
Israel kept up its pressure on militants overnight, with an airstrike on the Gaza home of a Hamas legislator, Mariam Farhat. Palestinian security officials said the house was unoccupied at the time of the attack, in the early hours yesterday, and no casualties were reported.
The army said aircraft hit an uninhabited building in which arms were stored.
On Tuesday night, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a vehicle near the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinians said, wounding a gunman. The military said only that it struck at a militant.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli forces shot and killed an armed Palestinian near the border fence, the military and Palestinians said.
Israel and Western donor nations cut off hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won parliamentary elections in January and formed a new government.
The international community wants Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept past peace agreements.
Hamas refuses to accept the conditions, despite widespread economic hardship caused by the international sanctions.
Palestinian Information Minister Youssef Rizka of Hamas blamed the US for the deadlock, saying the US rejected what he called the "reconciliation document," referring to a plan formulated by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, accepting a Palestinian state in the West Bank but not explicitly recognizing Israel.
The document has been a basis for Hamas-Fatah talks.
Rizka said on Tuesday that Hamas would not give in to the international demands "that ask of the government to directly recognize the two-state solution and renounce terrorism, which are hard conditions and were rejected by the people in the last election."
An Israeli military offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas-linked militants tunneled under the border and captured an Israeli soldier in June, has added to the misery. The soldier remains in captivity.
Abbas has been pushing Hamas to form a coalition based on the international demands as a way out of the crisis.
Negotiations have been going on for weeks, but without results. The rising tensions led to infighting that killed 12 people last week.
Nabil Amr, a top aide to Abbas in the West Bank, praised the efforts of Qatar and accused Hamas of stalling.
"We regret the failure of this initiative," he said. "They are buying time and time is of the essence for us."
Amr said the president is now weighing other options for resolving the standoff, including replacing the Hamas-dominated Cabinet with a government of apolitical technocrats or taking steps to hold early elections.
"I don't think there is room for any more international initiatives," he said.
Qatar has emerged as a possible mediator in the standoff between Israel and Hamas. The Gulf state has low-level relations with Israel and has good relations with Hamas' exiled leadership, which is based in Syria.
Sheik Hamad did not comment before his departure. But after meetings on Monday night, he said only that his country's plan was the center of discussions, and there was still no agreement on the issue of recognizing Israel.
Hamas on Tuesday claimed it had fired a homemade rocket at Israeli troops in northern Gaza. The army said militants fired an anti-tank missile at troops, causing no injury or damage.
"Resistance is the only way to deter [Israel's] aggression," Hamas said in a statement. "Seeking flexibility, dialogue and negotiations will not do any good."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in