Mhanna: “PFLP did not bless the truce”

Responding to the statements of Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud Zahhar, who said in a press conference on Thursday that all Palestinian factions had agreed to the truce, member of the Political Bureau of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Rabah Mhanna, said that this truce is way below the minimum expectations and that his group did not agree to its terms.

Rabah Mhanna of the PFLP

Mhaanna said that the PFLP issues the following statements regarding the truce offer;

1.       The conditions of the truce, which Hamas agreed to, fall short of the conditions that Hamas informed the PFLP during previous talk sessions.

2.       Any truce should be achieved through national dialogue and coherence, and should be based on the National Unity Document in order to ease the suffering of the Palestinian people.

3.       The PFLP believes that truce or calm with the occupations is a faulty policy as long as the occupation is still on the Palestinian lands and is still carrying assaults against the people.

4.       The PFLP will not be a factor which will cause a collapse to the truce as it does not want to cause any further divisions among the Palestinians, and Hamas will eventually realize its fault.

5.       The PFLP believes that the coming period should be a period of success of internal dialogue talks, yet, the PFLP noticed that Hamas is now slower its response to Abbas’s calls, and the calls of all factions, for national dialogue.

6.       The PFLP believes that Hamas should not use the coming period in placing restrictions on public freedom and should focus on dealing with its errors and act in order to provide the suitable conditions for talks far away from arrests and violations against public freedoms.

On Thursday evening, Zahhar said that Hamas had agreed to the truce which will guarantee the opening of the border crossings in the Gaza Strip, and will create basis for talks with Fateh movement in Cairo.

Holding a press conference from his home in Gaza, Zahhar said that the Palestinian and the Israeli sides had agreed to implement the first phase of an Egyptian offer for truce. This phase should see mutual and parallel commitment to the truce in the Gaza Strip starting on Thursday morning, June 19.

Mahmoud Zahhar of Hamas