After several days of fighting in the Gaza Strip that have left 44 dead and 360 injured in the city since Friday, Israel considers itself “completely satisfied and this truce corresponds perfectly to our objectives”, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs EIsraeli foreigners Emmanuel Nahshon on franceinfo Monday. After the signing of a truce under the aegis of Egypt on Sunday evening, Israel intends to work to “to improve the economic situation of the inhabitants of Gaza”he says.
“This is the umpteenth truce following the umpteenth attack against the Palestinian people”, denounced for his part, the ambassador and head of the Palestine mission in France, Hala Abou-Hassira, also invited this Monday.
Let us recall that, three minutes after the truce came into effect, the Israeli army has announced that it is carrying out strikes on Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza, “in response” to rocket fire.
franceinfo: Did you achieve your objectives in the military operation launched in Gaza a few days ago?
Emmanuel Nahshon: I believe that we dealt a fairly severe blow to the Islamic Jihad (JIP), but we would have done without this episode which was imposed on us by the group which was preparing the attacks. After two or three days of fighting, we are completely satisfied and this truce corresponds perfectly to our objectives.
What will happen next, after this very military agenda?
There will certainly be a political agenda that has nothing to do with the PIJ, which is a terrorist organization whose sole purpose is to kill Israelis. What is very important on our side is to improve the economic situation of the inhabitants of Gaza. We have been working on this for some time, at least since the formation of this new Israeli government a year ago. There is no reason for Gazans to pay the price for being now under the rule of Islamist terrorist organizations.
Hamas chose not to get involved in this conflict, what do you say?
If Hamas did not intervene alongside the PIJ, it was primarily because it feared receiving the same blows. Hamas still has to be accountable to the people, to the Gazans: a military operation that was absolutely unnecessary would have once again harmed the well-being of the people of the Gaza Strip. We do not negotiate with Hamas, which is recognized by the European Union as a terrorist organization, but we do what is necessary to improve the daily life of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
How does Israel view the Palestinian Authority in this conflict?
You have to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately we have been receiving negative responses for several years now from the Palestinian side, from Mahmoud Abbas and his government. We also probably have to prepare for the post-Abbas period: the president of the Palestinian Authority is already quite old, we may have to wait for his successor to renew these negotiations. Today, we are on a strategy of small steps: managing together, with the Palestinian Authority, the daily problems of the Palestinians while waiting to finally be able to negotiate a reasonable solution to this conflict which has already lasted for a hundred years.