The Islamist Hamas organization, which controls the Palestinian enclave, played down the possibility that an energy crisis in the Gaza Strip would lead to renewed hostilities with Israel, while declaring that relations between the Islamist group and Egypt were improving. In a press conference in Gaza City, Hamas’s deputy leader Khalil al-Hayya said that neither Hamas nor Israel were interested in a conflict in the near future, even though Hamas warned in the past week that the deteriorating crisis in the Gaza Strip could flare-up the situation.
“We in Hamas do not initiate wars and we do not expect one soon, this is our political assessment because we are not interested and the occupation also say they are not interested,” said Al-Hayyaa.
Israel announced last week that it would reduce the electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian Authority, which pays for the service, is pressing Hamas to relinquish control of the enclave, which the Islamist group seized from President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. The decision was expected to shorten by 45 minutes the daily average of four hours of power that Gaza’s 2 million residents receive from an electricity grid dependent on Israeli supplies.
In an effort to alleviate pressure on the population of the Gaza Strip, Egypt had reportedly agreed to sell Hamas fuel to get the enclave’s sole power station back on-line. The report, which was revealed by a Palestinian source on condition of anonymity, came after Hamas agreed to several security related demands by Cairo, which in-turn provided the Islamist group with austerity relieving measures. There was no immediate comment from Egyptian officials on whether a deal had been struck, and Hamas’s deputy leader Hayya declined to confirm any agreement. Nevertheless, he noted that the security on the Gazan-Egyptian border was a joint interest of both the Egyptian authorities and Hamas.
“The security relations on the borders and our role and theirs (Egypt) in securing borders is a joint interest. This is what have been discussed well, clearly and comfortably,” added Al-Hayya.
According to several reports, Egypt has demanded of Hamas to extradite suspected terrorists linked acts of terror on Egyptian soil and to provide information about the organization’s smuggling tunnels that it operates in the border area with Egypt.