‘No negotiator who would give up Jerusalem has a national mandate,’ Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has warned.
Addressing guests at an iftar, a fast-breaking dinner on Thursday evening, he condemned the direct negotiations between Palestine Authority President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington.
The meal was organised by the Ar-Rahma Charitable Society in Khan Younis, honouring the families of Palestinian men and women in prison, those killed by Israeli forces and families with special needs children.
Haniya told those in attendance that ‘Palestinians across the globe will not support any movement holding absurd talks with Israel’.
He added: ‘Prisoners, the injured and the families of martyrs will not authorise anyone who wants to give up Palestine and Jerusalem after they have sacrificed for years and struggled to keep it.’
Haniya stressed: ‘The occupation has failed to break the will of the Palestinian people, neither by increasing its attacks nor increasing the number of dead, nor by injuring prisoners or isolating the resistance from its people.
‘Israel is trying in dozens of ways to achieve its goal, and now it is through negotiations.’
Haniya demanded that Israeli crimes against Palestinians be halted, saying the latest crime was the negotiations effort.
Yesterday Jerusalem officials estimated some 2,000 Israeli troops were stationed on the perimeter of the Old City.
Checkpoints in the south and central West Bank were again overwhelmed as tens of thousands lined up waiting to access the holy city, as soldiers and border guards continue to permit only women over 40 and men over 50, as well as special permit holders including some women over 35 and men over 45.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu proposed to US officials on Thursday that he meet with PA President Abbas every other week.
Netanyahu said ‘serious negotiations in the Middle East mean only direct, quiet and consecutive talks between the two leaders on the key issues’.
The Israeli premier proposed that he and Abbas meet to try and forge ‘covert understandings and set principles to solve every issue’, following the meeting in Washington next Thursday, 2nd September.
