ISTANBUL (AP) – A summit Hamas A political official told The Associated Press that the Islamic militant group is willing to accept a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its arms and become a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along the pre-1967 borders.
Khalil al-Hayya’s comments in a interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of ceasefire talks in Gaza. The suggestion that Hamas disarming appeared to be a significant concession on the part of the militant group officially committed to IsraelThe destruction.
But it’s unlikely Israel I would consider such a scenario. She has promised to crush Hamas after the deadly October 7 attacks that sparked the war, and its current leadership is strongly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Al-Hayya, a senior official Hamas The official who has represented Palestinian militants in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage exchange adopted a tone that was sometimes defiant and other times conciliatory.
Speaking to the AP in Istanbul, Al-Hayya said Hamas wants 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,” along with IsraelThe borders before 1967.
If that happens, he said, the group’s military wing would disband.
“All the experiences of the people who fought against the occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their State, what have these forces done? They have become political parties and their defending combat forces have become the national army,” he said.
Through the years, Hamas He has at times moderated his public position regarding the possibility of a Palestinian state along with Israel. But its political program still officially “rejects any alternative to the full liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea,” referring to the area stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which includes lands that now make up Israel.
Al-Hayya did not say whether his apparent adoption of a two-state solution would amount to ending the Palestinian conflict with Israel or an intermediate step toward the group’s stated goal of destroying Israel.
There was no immediate reaction from Israel or the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized autonomous government that Hamas ousted when he seized Gaza in 2007, a year after winning the Palestinian parliamentary elections. After the Hamas taking over Gaza, the Palestinian Authority was left with the administration of semi-autonomous areas of the IsraelOccupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority hopes to establish an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, areas captured by Israel in the Middle East war of 1967. Although the international community overwhelmingly supports this two-state solution, IsraelPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government rejects it.
The war in Gaza has dragged on for almost seven months and ceasefire negotiations have stalled. The war began with the deadly October 7 attack on the south Israel in which HamasThe militants led by them killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants dragged some 250 hostages into the enclave. The next IsraelThe bombing and ground offensive in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 people. Palestiniansmost of them women and children, according to local health authorities, and displaced around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Israel is now preparing for an offensive on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have fled to
Israel says it has dismantled most of the initial two dozen Hamas battalions since the beginning of the war, but that the remaining four are taking refuge in Rafah. Israel maintains that an offensive in Rafah is necessary to achieve victory over Hamas.
Al-Hayya said that such an offensive would fail to destroy Hamas. He said contacts between outside political leaders and military leaders inside Gaza are “uninterrupted” by the war and that “contacts, decisions and directions are made in consultation” between the two groups.
IsraelThe forces i “have not destroyed more than 20% of (Hamas‘) capabilities, neither human nor field,’ he asserted. “If they can’t finish (Hamas) off, what is the solution? The solution is to reach consensus.”
In November, a week-long ceasefire allowed the release of more than 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. But talks for a long-term truce and the release of the remaining hostages are now frozen, with each side accusing the other of intransigence. The main interlocutor, Qatar, has said in recent days that it is carrying out a “re-evaluation” of its role as mediator.
most of Hamas‘Senior political officials, previously based in Qatar, left the Gulf country last week and traveled to Turkey, where Hamas Political leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday. Al-Hayya denied that a permanent move of the group’s main political office is being prepared and said Hamas wants Qatar to continue as mediator in the talks.
IsraelI and American officials have accused Hamas of not taking a deal seriously.
Al-Hayya denied it and said Hamas has made concessions on the number of Palestinian prisoners it wants to release in exchange for the remaining IsraelI hostages. He said the group does not know exactly how many hostages remain in Gaza and are still alive.
but he said Hamas will not back down from its demands for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of IsraelI troops, which Israel has opposed. Israel says it will continue military operations until Hamas is definitively defeated and will then maintain a security presence in Gaza.
“If we are not sure that the war will end, why would he hand over the prisoners?” he Hamas the leader said about the remaining hostages.
Al-Hayya also implicitly threatened that Hamas would attack IsraelI or other forces that might be stationed around a floating dock the United States is fighting to build along the Gaza coast to deliver aid by sea.
“We categorically reject any non-Palestinian presence in Gaza, whether at sea or on land, and we will deal with any military forces present in these locations. Israel“Me or not… as an occupying power,” he said.
Al-Hayaya said Hamas He has no regrets about the October 7 attacks, despite the destruction they have wrought on Gaza and its people. He denied that Hamas The militants had targeted civilians during the attacks – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – and said the operation achieved its goal of drawing the world’s attention back to the Palestinian issue.
And he said, IsraelI try to eradicate Hamas would ultimately fail to prevent future Palestinian armed uprisings.
“Let’s say they have destroyed Hamas. Are the Palestinian people gone?” she asked.
This story has been updated to correct the number of Palestinian prisoners released during the ceasefire in November.
AP journalist Khalil Hamra in Istanbul contributed to this report.