Israeli Defense Chief Promises Investment if Hamas Stops Cross-Border Shelling

Israel will be the first to invest in infrastructure in the Gaza Strip when the local Palestinian authority, Hamas, stops firing rockets across the border, the Israeli defense minister promised Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In the article on the website of the Ministry’s Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is in charge of facilitating the Israeli army’s dialogue with Palestinians, the minister invited the Hamas to "talk," saying Israel could create 40,000 jobs for Gaza residents if it willing to co-exist peacefully.

"Once Hamas gives up the terror tunnels and the rockets, we will be the first to invest and build them a naval port, an airport and an industrial area," Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

In return, Lieberman asked the Hamas to give up its goal of destroying the state of Israel and hand over bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers and citizens who are "held captive" in Gaza. He denied that Israeli settlements in Palestinian lands had ever got in the way of a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine.

Earlier in the day, the Central Committee of Fatah, the largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), warned Israel that its recent decision to legalize some 4,000 Israeli homes on privately-owned Palestinian land threatened to derail political process in the region.