Israel will help to rebuild Gaza if Hamas disarms, the Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has told a Palestinian newspaper.
“If Hamas stops digging tunnels, rearming and firing rockets we will lift the blockade and build the port and airport by ourselves,” Lieberman said to Al-Quds, one of the most popular newspapers in Gaza and the West Bank
The interview sparked fury among Palestinians, firstly because Al-Quds controversially agreed to publish an interview with an Israeli leader who they widely revile, and secondly because of the demands that he voiced.
Hamas called Lieberman’s offer “blackmail” and its spokesman Hazim Qasim said that Palestinians must hold on to arms as a means “to be able to defend themselves against continuous Israeli assaults.”
Read the article by Nathan Jeffay in the Australian Jewish News.