‘Hamas will lay down arms if Palestine state is established’
A top Hamas political ocial told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of ve years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview on Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of talks for a ceasere in Gaza. The suggestion that Hamas would disarm appeared to be a signicant concession by the militant group ocially committed to Israel’s destruction.
But it’s unlikely Israel would consider such a scenario. It has vowed to crush Hamas following the deadly October 7 attacks that triggered the war, and its current leadership is adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 West
Asian war.
Al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas ocial who has represented the Palestinian militants in negotiations for a cease-re and hostage exchange, struck a sometimes deant and other times conciliatory tone.
Joining PLO
Speaking to the AP in Istanbul, Al-Hayya said Hamas wants to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by the rival Fatah faction, to form a unied 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 the international resolutions,” along Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
If that happens, he said, the group’s military wing would dissolve.
“All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending ghting forces have turned into the national army,” he said.
Al-Hayya did not say whether his apparent embrace of a two-state solution would amount to an end to the Palestinian conict with Israel or an interim step toward the group’s stated goal of destroying Israel.