Hamas has just announced it has reached a Qatari-mediated deal with Israel to stop launching explosives from Gaza Strip in exchange for a loosening of blockage restrictions. Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar says agreement includes “a number of projects that serve our people in the Gaza Strip and would help them cope with the outbreak of the coronavirus.” Apparently, there will also be more Qatari-financed infrastructure projects.
For past few years, Egypt has been attempting to broker a Hamas–Israel de-escalation — it is unclear to me if this was an extension of that effort, or a new one.
However positive the news, a deal with Hamas is always tenuous. We shouldn’t expect the terror group to lay down its arms and embrace peaceful coexistence with the Jews. Yet, it’s worth noting that despite the dire warnings from foreign-policy elites in Washington and Obama-era officials, Trump’s moving the American embassy to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem did not bring about mass unrest or stand in the way of new agreements. First the United Arab Emirates deal. (Today, for the first time ever, a high-level delegation from Israel took a commercial flight to the UAE.) Then the potential (or maybe not) Sudan deal. And now this.