- Hamas has offered a five-year ceasefire with Israel while proposing disarmament leading to a Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders.
- Khalil al-Hayya suggested Hamas join the Palestine Liberation Organization to create a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank.
- Hamas still officially rejects any option of “complete liberation of Palestine”.
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press that the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a ceasefire of five years or more. with israel And that if an independent Palestinian state is established on pre-1967 borders it will lay down its arms and convert into a political party.
Khalil al-Hayya’s comments in an interview on Wednesday came amid a deadlock in months-long talks for a ceasefire in Gaza. The suggestion that Hamas would disarm appears to be a significant concession by a terrorist group officially committed to Israel’s destruction.
But it is unlikely that Israel would consider such a scenario. It has vowed to crush Hamas, which started the war after the deadly October 7 attacks, and its current leadership is firmly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘hostile mob’ has taken over US ‘major universities’
Al-Haya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented Palestinian militants in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage exchange, spoke in a sometimes defiant and sometimes conciliatory tone.
Khalil al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented the Palestinian militant group in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement, speaks during an interview in Istanbul, Turkey, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Speaking to the AP in Istanbul, al-Haya said Hamas wanted to join the Palestine Liberation Organization led by the rival Fatah faction to form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank. He said Hamas would accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with international resolutions” on Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
If this happens, the group’s military wing will be disbanded, he said.
He said, “All the experiences of the people fighting against the occupiers, when they became independent and got their rights and their state, what did these forces do? They turned into political parties and the fighting forces that protected them became national armies. Have changed to.” ,
House passes $26 billion aid to Israel, Gaza as tensions rise with Iran
Over the past few years, Hamas has sometimes softened its public position regarding the possibility of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But its political program still officially rejects “any option of the complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea” – referring to the territory reaching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including the land that now makes up Israel. Is.
Al-Haya did not suggest that his apparent embrace of a two-state solution would end the Palestinian conflict with Israel or merely an interim step toward the group’s stated goal of destroying Israel.
There was no immediate reaction from Israel or the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized self-ruled government that Hamas ousted after seizing Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliamentary elections. Following Hamas’s capture of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority was left to administer the semi-autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority hopes to establish an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. While the international community overwhelmingly supports such a two-state solution, the hardline government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects it.
war The conflict in Gaza has dragged on for nearly seven months and ceasefire talks are stalled. The war began in fateful October. Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The terrorists dragged about 250 hostages into the encirclement. The ensuing Israeli bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and displaced about 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, according to local health officials.
Israel is now preparing an attack on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have fled.
Israel says it has destroyed most of the initial two dozen Hamas battalions since the war began, but four remaining battalions remain holed up in Rafah. Israel argues that the offensive on Rafah is necessary to achieve victory over Hamas.
Al-Haya said such an attack would not succeed in destroying Hamas. He said communications regarding the war between the political leadership outside Gaza and the military leadership inside are “uninterrupted” and that “contacts, decisions and instructions are made in consultation” between the two groups.
He stressed, “Israeli forces have not destroyed more than 20% of (Hamas’) capabilities, neither human nor in territory.” “If they can’t eliminate (Hamas), what’s the solution? The solution is to go to consensus.”
In November, a week-long ceasefire led to the release of more than 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. But talks for a long-term ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages are now stalled, with each side accusing the other of intolerance. Qatar, the lead negotiator, has said in recent days that it is “re-evaluating” its role as mediator.
Most of Hamas’s top political officials, previously based in Qatar, left the Gulf country last week to travel to Turkey, where Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday. Al-Hayya denied that a permanent relocation of the group’s main political office was in the works and said Hamas wanted Qatar to continue its role as mediator in the talks.
Israeli and US officials have accused Hamas of not being serious about the agreement.
Al-Haya denied this, saying that Hamas had made concessions regarding the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the remaining Israeli hostages. He said the group did not know exactly how many hostages remained in Gaza and were still alive.
But he said that Hamas will not back down from its demands for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, both demands on which Israel is adamant. Israel says it will continue military operations until Hamas is completely defeated and then maintain a security presence in Gaza.
“If we don’t have assurances that the war will end, why would I hand over prisoners?” the Hamas leader said of the remaining hostages.
Click here to get the Fox News app
Al-Haya also explicitly threatened that Hamas would attack Israeli or other forces that might be deployed around the floating pier. America Trying to build along Gaza’s coastline to deliver aid by sea.
He said, “We categorically reject any non-Palestinian presence in Gaza, whether at sea or on land, and we reject an occupation by any military force, Israeli or otherwise, present in these locations… Will be dealt with as a power.”
Al-Haya said that despite the destruction it has wreaked on Gaza and its people, Hamas has no regrets over the October 7 attacks. He denied that Hamas militants had targeted civilians during the attacks – despite evidence to the contrary – and said that the operation succeeded in its goal of bringing the Palestinian issue back to the world’s attention.
And, he said, Israeli efforts to eliminate Hamas will ultimately fail to prevent a future Palestinian armed rebellion.
“Let’s say they’ve destroyed Hamas. Are the Palestinians gone?” He asked.
