Palestinian militant groups and Israel agreed to end a weekslong escalation of unrest along the Israel-Gaza border, Gaza’s ruling Hamas and Israel said Monday.
Under the deal, brokered by a Qatari envoy, Hamas would end the launching of incendiary balloons, and Israel would end airstrikes, said a Palestinian official close to the mediation.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Israel’s liaison agency to Palestine, confirmed that after security consultations led by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Gaza’s main goods crossing would reopen and fishermen would be allowed back to work, up to 15 nautical miles.
A COGAT statement said the decisions were “subject to the continuation of the calm and the security stability” but warned that if Hamas failed to deliver, Israel would “act accordingly.”
Hamas said the understanding would ease the way for the implementation of projects “that will serve the people of Gaza, and alleviate the suffering amid the coronavirus wave.”
Palestinians and humanitarian groups have urged an easing of the Israeli-led blockade on Gaza, fearing even more hardship after the first outbreak of COVID-19 there last week. Palestinian political analyst Tayseer Muheisen said Hamas has the necessary "political tools to help it manage the current situation with Israel," adding that in spite of the lack of all health capabilities, the Palestinian group somehow succeeded in managing the coronavirus.
Palestinian health authorities confirmed one fatality and 44 additional infections from the coronavirus in the blockaded Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Health Ministry said a 57-year-old man, who was suffering from cancer, had died from the virus. About 400 confirmed cases, including five deaths, and 76 recoveries were registered in Gaza Strip so far.
"The number of active cases in Gaza has reached 319,” the ministry said, going on to call on residents to pursue social distancing to help stem the spread of the pandemic. "The Gaza Strip is still in the stage of containing the pandemic and breaking the cycles of its spread, which requires preventing movement and adhering to preventive measures."
The outbreak came as Israel imposed several punitive measures on Gaza over the launch of incendiary balloons into southern Israel, including a halt of fuel imports into the territory. Palestinian activists argue that the fire-bomb balloons were a tool to pile pressure on Israel to end its 14-year blockade on the seaside enclave.
According to political analyst Mustafa Ibrahim, Israel is going through a political, financial and health crisis and is not prepared for a confrontation with unpredictable consequences.
"Similarly, the spread of the coronavirus in Gaza makes a wider confrontation an unrewarding idea in the short term,” he added.
Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War, but unilaterally pulled out its army and evacuated its settlements from the strip in 2005.
Israel imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip in 2007, after the Palestinian group Hamas seized control of the territory from its rival group Fatah, badly affecting livelihood in the Palestinian enclave. Israel, however, continues to control Gaza's borders, exercising a crippling blockade on the Palestinian territory.
