Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a senior Hamas leader, stated Saturday that the Palestinians do not have a craving for the truce with Israel, adding that the Cairo talks were positive and a comprehensive agreement was reached, but everything stalled after Israel demanded the release of its captive soldier in exchange for the calm.In an interview with the Lebanese Akhbar newspaper, Dr. Zahhar noted that Egypt was upset at the Israeli decision and realized its seriousness.Replying to a question about a new Israeli list of prisoners' names, the Hamas leader said that there is no new list because all the names mentioned by Israel are part of the swap deal, so there are no positive signs regarding the deal, adding that Israel constantly maneuver to avoid the release of big names.Regarding the reconstruction issue, Zahhar explained that this effort must be coupled with the calm because it is impossible to reconstruct Gaza under aggression and siege.He pointed out that Egypt was supposed to provide Gaza with mobile homes to shelter homeless citizens if the truce was reached and this step would be followed by allowing in construction materials, but Israel thwarted these Egyptian efforts.As for the national reconciliation efforts, He said that the Hamas delegation met with Fatah officials Ahmed Qurei and Nabil Shaath and agreed with them on a mechanism to close the file of political arrest, but the Fatah officials asked for time to consult the central council and the revolutionary council affiliated with Fatah and no response was received from them so far.Zahhar underlined that the Hamas delegation agreed with Qurei and Shaath on forming a committee composed of Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad in addition to human rights organizations to determine whether there were political prisoners in PA jails in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip.He said that Hamas asked Egypt to continue its reconciliation efforts as well as its contacts with the PA leadership in Ramallah in order to create an appropriate atmosphere for dialog.
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