JERUSALEM
A senior Israeli official said on Saturday that his country would resume indirect talks on a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip with Palestinians in Cairo this month.
Even with this, Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, added in an interview with the Israeli television that no specific date had been set for these talks yet.
Gilad – a member of the Israeli delegation negotiating a Gaza cease-fire with the Palestinians in Cairo in August – added that Palestinian faction Hamas would never give up its arms.
He added that Hamas did not rearm or even dig tunnels in the Gaza Strip at present.
He said Hamas was still recovering from the losses it sustained during the latest 51-day war on the Gaza Strip and that the movement was still recovering the bodies of its victims from the tunnels.
He added, however, that Hamas might resume the digging of tunnels in the future.
The Palestinians and the Israelis reached a cease-fire deal in Gaza in Cairo on August 26, bringing to an end an intensive Israeli war on the strip.
The war had left 2,152 Palestinians dead and more than 11,000 others injured. The two sides should return to Cairo to resume talks on pending issues, including the desire of the Palestinians to have an airport in Gaza as well as a deep sea port.
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
www.aa.com.tr/en
