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Operation Protective Edge
Week 6 - 12 August - 19 August 2014

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti said 17 August 2014 "The Palestinian side still demands a real lifting of the siege.... What is proposed is not enough yet, what we need is a complete elimination of the siege and this can only be achieved if there is an independent port and an independent passage internationally protected and internationally guaranteed that Israel can not interfere with".

“The demilitarization of Gaza which was already guaranteed in the Oslo agreement, that there will be no rocket no missile whatsoever in Gaza, should be on the table again. Otherwise a seaport or an airport without commitment for demilitarization is like a duty free for rockets and missiles,” said Yuval Steinitz, Israeli intelligence and strategic affairs minister. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking 17 August 2014 before Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, said that Hamas had suffered a huge setback in the four-week war and that would be reflected at the Cairo talks. "If Hamas thinks that by continuing the sporadic shootings (of rockets at Israel) it will make us agree to concessions, it is mistaken," Netanyahu said. “If Hamas thinks that it can compensate for its military defeat with diplomatic gains, it is mistaken. If Hamas thinks that through continued intermittent firing it will cause us to make concessions, it is mistaken," he added.

Israel said it is willing to ease the blockade but not lift it completely, fearing that Gaza could be flooded with weapons. Hamas, on the other hand, said it will never agree to Israel’s demand to give up the armed struggle. Therefore, Egypt pushed for an open-ended cease-fire, to give negotiators more time to hammer out a long-term agreement.

Israel's military said it carried out a series of airstrikes on "terror targets" on 19 August 2014 in response to rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, with both attacks putting the Egypt-mediated peace talks in jeopardy. The violence came as the sides were holding indirect talks in Cairo in a bid to extend a temporary Gaza cease-fire into a more lasting truce.