Barghouti says ceasefire deal with Hamas broke Israeli taboos

Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative and former presidential candidate, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, said the temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement has broken the “occupation’s taboos”, which initially rejected any ceasefire and the principle of a prisoner exchange.

“The agreement opens the door to completely stopping the brutal aggression against our people [in Gaza]. The agreement would not have been achieved without the heroic steadfastness of our people and their brave fighters in the Gaza Strip, who had confronted the plan of forced transfer and ethnic cleansing,” Dr. Barghouti told Quds Press yesterday.

However, he warned of “the [Israeli] occupation’s tricks to sabotage the agreement and the escalation of its crimes during the next 24 hours.”

He also called on the mediators to put immediate pressure on the Israeli leaders to curb the army and settlers’ escalating attacks in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and to stop the widespread arrest campaigns carried out by them.

Qatar announced yesterday the success of the joint mediation efforts with Egypt and the United States between Israel and Hamas, which resulted in reaching an agreement for a four-day humanitarian truce which will be extendable. The agreement also includes the release of 50 prisoners of war held in Gaza by the Palestinian resistance as well as 150 Palestinians detained by Israel.

READ: Barghouti: Palestinians will not accept anyone’s ‘guardianship’