GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Egyptian mediators were in the Gaza Strip on Monday in an effort to reduce tensions and prevent a new cross-border confrontation between Israel and palestinian militant organization Hamas, but they left without appearing to have reached a resolution..
Mediators regularly announce any agreement before leaving the territory, but after a day of meetings with Hamas officials, the three Egyptian general intelligence envoys departed for Israel, according to Adel Abdelrahman, an adviser to Egyptian mediators based in Gaza..
Pressure comes when hostilities erupte along the Gaza-Israel border after months of calm due in part to the profession of leaders on both sides through the coronavirus crisis.
Over the following week, teams of Palestinian youth affiliated with Hamas, a militant organization that took Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, fired incendiary balloons in Israel, setting fire to swathes of farmland.Israel, which holds Hamas accountable for the violence emanating from the territory, responded with airstrikes on Hamas army sites, banned Gazan fishermen from going to sea and closed the territory’s main industrial crossing.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s only power plant is expected to close as the closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing has reduced fuel supply, exacerbating the electricity crisis and leaving Gaza’s other 2 million inhabitants with approximately 4 hours of power per day.
Hamas stated that Israel had not complied with previous agreements with the help of Egypt and Qatar, under which Israel eased the blockade it has imposed on Gaza since hamas’ inauguration and authorized large-scale projects to help save the collapsed economy.