Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, reported on Tuesday that senior Israeli military officials believe that Hamas movement is currently interested in maintaining the truce along the borders between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Haaretz added that Egypt is currently putting pressure on Hamas leaders in order to maintain the ceasefire deal.
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, said that if Hamas fighters stop the firing of homemade shells into adjacent Israeli areas, and if they stop smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip, ‘then this might lead to a new horizon’.
Barak added, however, that the situation on the ground is ‘far away from this goal’ and that Israel will not negotiate with the Hamas movement, except for the indirect talks regarding the abducted Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Three weeks ago, the Egyptian leadership held talks with Hamas leadership and the movement agreed to stop firing homemade shells for one week as a trial period, Israel on its side vowed not to carry out attacks in the coastal region.
So far, both sides seem to be relatively committed to their promises to Egypt, while Israeli sources stated that Hamas is currently refraining from providing other resistance groups with homemade shells.
Israeli security sources told Haaretz that the truce should not be considered an Israeli-Hamas agreement, and that Egypt is interested in the truce because it does not want violence to spread to its own territory.
Senior military officials in Israel said this week that they believe that the truce will be temporary because Egypt will face difficulties in achieving a comprehensive agreement as large gaps still exist between the parties.
