ISTANBUL (AP) – A senior Hamas political official told The Associated Press that the Islamic extremist group is willing to agree to a five-year cease-fire with Israel and will lay down its arms and turn into a political party if the Palestinians gain independence. He said he was deaf. The state was established along his pre-1967 borders.
Khalil Al Haya made the comments in an interview on Wednesday. Months of negotiations towards ceasefire in Gaza stall. The proposal for Hamas to disarm appeared to be a significant concession by an extremist organization formally committed to Israel's destruction.
However, Israel is unlikely to consider such a scenario.vowed to crush Hamas Following the deadly attack on October 7th That triggered the war, and the current leadership is adamantly opposed to establishing a Palestinian state on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Al-Haya, a senior Hamas official who has represented Palestinian militants in ceasefire and hostage exchange negotiations, has struck a tone that is sometimes defiant and sometimes conciliatory.
Hamas wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by the rival Fatah faction, to form a unity government in Gaza and the West Bank, al-Haya told The Associated Press in Istanbul.He said Hamas Along the pre-1967 Israeli border, it would accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with international resolutions.”
He said the group's military wing would then be disbanded.
“The whole experience of those who fought against the occupiers is that when they became independent and gained rights and a state, what did their forces do? It has become,” he said.
Hamas has long been Sometimes he softened his public stance. Regarding the possibility of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. However, its political plan still officially “rejects any alternative to the complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea” – referring to the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the land that now constitutes Israel. is also included.
Al-Haya's apparent support for a two-state solution will lead to an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, or will it be a tentative step toward the group's stated goal of destroying Israel? I didn't mention it.
There was no immediate response from Israel. or the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized autonomous government that Hamas ousted when it occupied Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliamentary elections. After Hamas occupied Gaza, the Palestinian Authority assumed control of the semi-autonomous region of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority wants to establish an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. The international community overwhelmingly supports such a two-state solution, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government rejects it.
The war in Gaza has dragged on for nearly seven months, with ceasefire negotiations stalled. The war began with a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants dragged about 250 hostages into the enclave. Subsequent Israeli shelling and ground attacks in Gaza left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead. Most of them are women and childrenaccording to local health authorityapproximately 80% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people were evacuated.
Israel is currently preparing to attack Located in the southern city of RafahA place where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge.
Israel has disbanded most of the original 24 Hamas battalions since the start of the war, but said the remaining four battalions remain holed up in Rafah. Israel insists that the Rafah attack is necessary to achieve victory over Hamas.
Al-Haya said such an attack would not be successful in destroying Hamas. He said contacts between the political leadership outside Gaza and the military leadership inside Gaza “have not been interrupted” by the war, and “contacts, decisions and instructions” between the two groups are taken in consultation. said.
He claimed that Israeli forces “have not destroyed more than 20% of (Hamas') capabilities, both human and on the ground.” “If they can't end it (Hamas), what's the solution? The solution is to get a consensus.”
In November, a week-long ceasefire resulted in the release of more than 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, talks were held for a long-term ceasefire. The release of the remaining hostages has been frozen., both sides accused the other of intransigence. Qatar, a key dialogue partner, said in recent days that it was “re-evaluating” his role as a mediator.
Most of Hamas's top political officials previously based in Qatar left the Gulf state to travel to Turkey in the past week, and Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday. We had a meeting. Al-Haya denied that a permanent relocation of the group's main political office was under consideration and said Hamas wanted Qatar to maintain its position as mediator in the talks.
Israeli and US officials have accused Hamas of not being serious about the deal.
Al-Haya denies this, saying Hamas has made concessions on the number of Palestinian prisoners it seeks to release in exchange for the remaining Israeli hostages. He said the organization does not know exactly how many hostages remain in Gaza and whether they are still alive.
But he said Hamas would not withdraw its demands for a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, both of which Israel has rejected. Israel says it will continue its military operations until Hamas is decisively defeated, and then maintain security in Gaza.
“If we are not sure that the war will end, why hand over the prisoners?” the Hamas leader said of the remaining hostages.
Al-Haya also implicitly threatened that Hamas would attack Israeli forces and other forces that may be stationed there. around the floating pier The United States is rushing construction along the Gaza Strip's coastline to deliver aid by sea.
“We categorically reject any presence of non-Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, whether by sea or on land, and we will deal with any military force present in these places as an occupying power, whether Israeli or not. '' he said.
Al-Haya said Hamas does not regret the October 7 attack, despite the destruction it caused to Gaza and its residents. He denied that Hamas militants targeted civilians during the attack, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and said the operation had succeeded in its objective of refocusing world attention on the Palestinian issue. Stated.
And he said Israel's attempts to eradicate Hamas ultimately will not prevent a future Palestinian armed uprising.
“Let's say they destroyed Hamas. Are the Palestinians gone?” he asked.
___
This article has been updated to correct the number of Palestinian prisoners released during the November ceasefire.
___
Associated Press writer Khalil Hamra in Istanbul contributed to this report.