Israeli foreign minister, Tzibi Livni, hinted Sunday at the possibility of no state for the Palestinian people until the homemade shells fire fm the Hamas-ruled Gaza comes to a halt.
Livni told reporters today ‘ there is no hope for the Palestinian people with Hamas in power. There is no hope for any vision for a Palestinian state involving the Gaza Strip, without any real change on the ground’.
‘ Hamas is the enemy of Israel and Palestinians alike’, added the foreign minister of Israel.
She also maintained that the international community needs to understand the steps Israel should be taking against the homemade shells fire, being launched from the Hamas-controlled territory’.
Livni’s remarks came concurrent with Israeli defense minister’s vow today to continue attacks on the Gaza Strip, in a bid to prevent what Israel says ‘ homemade shells fire’ against southern Israeli towns that border Gaza.
The Palestinian-Israeli process was broken down on September2000, when the Palestinian uprising (Intifada) erupted, as Israel insisted to reach a settlement of its own, including a Palestinian state, shortfall of east Jerusalem as a capital as well as a just solution for the problem of Palestinian refugees.
In November2007, Palestinians and Israelis relaunched their peace talks under the auspices of the U.S, whose President Gorge W. Bush, urged both sides to work on a two-state solution, he had already envisioned some years ago.
The Islamist Hamas movement was elected by the majority of the Palestinian people in 2006’s parliamentary elections. The ballot’s results undermined the long-standing secular Fatah party, which embraces a peace strategy.
In June of last year, the Islamist movement took complete control over the coastal region amidst a power struggle with Fatah party and since then Israel has been placing Gaza under a strict closure with a series of punitive measures against Gaza’s 1.5 million residents, including fuel and power supplies cut.
