MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The delegation of the Palestinian movement Hamas prepares to go to Egypt in order to negotiate a truce with Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported Monday.
"A senior Hamas delegation is preparing to head to Egypt for talks on a possible long-term truce between the Islamist movement and Israel," the Jerusalem Post said.
One of the leaders of the Islamist movement, Ismail Haniyeh, will head the delegation, the newspaper reported, citing sources in the Gaza Strip.
In addition to Egypt, the Hamas representatives are expected to visit Qatar and Turkey.
According to the newspaper, the sources did not specify how the delegation from the Gaza Strip will get to Egypt.
"They said that it was not clear yet whether the Egyptian authorities had given permission to the Hamas officials to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing," the newspaper wrote.
Jerusalem Post also quoted other sources as saying that the Hamas delegation was invited to Cairo for a meeting with the head of Egyptian Intelligence "to discuss efforts to achieve a long-term truce with Israel."
In June 2014, Hamas, which had de-facto control over the Gaza Strip, formed a unity government with the more moderate West Bank-based Palestinian Fatah party, the largest faction of the PLO, recognized by a wide majority of UN member states as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
In the framework of the peace process, which is currently suspended, Palestinians require that future border between two sovereign states were on the lines that existed before the Six-Day War in 1967, with the possible exchange of territories. Palestinians hope to establish their own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and to make East Jerusalem the state's capital.
Israel refuses to return to the borders established in 1967, as well as to divide Jerusalem, which it has already announced to be its eternal capital.
