POLICY Destruction of Israel out of Hamas agenda

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will drop its long-standing call for Israel’s destruction as well as its association with the Muslim Brotherhood in a new policy document to be issued on Monday, Gulf Arab sources said.

Hamas’s move appears aimed at improving relations with the West, Gulf Arab states and Egypt, which label the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.

Many Western countries classify Hamas as a terrorist group over its failure to renounce violence, recognise Israel’s right to exist and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

Israel rejected the reported document, calling it an attempt by Hamas to delude the world that it was becoming a more moderate group. The Gulf Arab sources said Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, will say in the document it agrees to a transitional Palestinian state along the borders from 1967, when Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a war with Arab states. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

A future state encompassing Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem along 1967 borders is the goal of Hamas’ main political rival, the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. His Palestinian Authority has engaged in peace talks with Israel on that basis, although the last, US-mediated round collapsed three years ago.

The revised Hamas political document will still reject Israel’s right to exist and back “armed struggle” against it, the Gulf Arab sources told Reuters.

“Hamas is attempting to fool the world but it will not succeed,” said David Keyes, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“They dig terror tunnels and have launched thousands upon thousands of missiles at Israeli civilians,” he said. “This is the real Hamas.” — Reuters