Hamas rejects Israeli idea for UN peacekeepers in Gaza

Heavy rains caused severe flooding across the Gaza Strip, leading to an evacuation of residents from low-lying districts on 16th February 2017 [middleeastmonitor]

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has rejected the idea apparently put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send UN peacekeepers to the Gaza Strip, Al-Mujtama has reported. “Sending international forces to Gaza is a dangerous matter which we reject,” said spokesman Abdel Latif Al-Qanou in a press release.

Read: Hamas: We will ‘fiercely’ defend against new Israeli war on Gaza

Netanyahu made his suggestion, it was reported, during his visit to Melbourne last week, where he met Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Such international forces, he claimed, would “maintain security and fight terror” in the Gaza Strip. However, he acknowledged that Israel’s experience with UN forces “was not good.”

The Israeli leader rejected the idea of deploying of international forces in the occupied West Bank. Security there, he insisted, must remain in Israel’s hands in any future agreement.

Netanyahu’s office denied that he made such a suggestion, and claimed that it was Bishop who put the idea to the prime minister.

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