Hamas declares 'two-state solution' as condition for laying down arms

A top Hamas political official, Khalil al-Hayya, stated that they are willing to make a cease-fire with Israel for five years or longer.

Hayya said that Hamas would disarm if a Palestinian state was established.

The statements by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of cease-fire talks. The suggestion that Hamas would disarm appeared to be a significant concession by the group officially committed to Israel’s destruction.

However, it’s unlikely that Israel would consider such a scenario. It has vowed to crush Hamas following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the conflict, and its leadership is adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented the Palestinian people in negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage exchange, struck a sometimes defiant and other times conciliatory tone.

Al-Hayya said that Hamas would accept "a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the return of Palestinian refugees by international resolutions," along the borders of Israel before 1967.

Hamas may lay down weapons

“All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers when they became independent and obtained their rights and state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending fighting forces have turned into the national army,” Al Hayya said.

Over the years, Hamas has sometimes moderated its public position concerning the possibility of a Palestinian state alongside 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 reaching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which includes lands that now make up Israel.

There was no immediate reaction from Israel or the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized self-ruled government that Hamas drove out when it seized Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliamentary elections.

After the Hamas takeover of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority was left with administering semi-autonomous pockets of the Israeli-occupied 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 1967 Mideast war. While the international community supports such a two-state solution, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government rejects it.

Israel prepared to attack Rafah

The conflict in Gaza has been going on for about seven months, and ceasefire negotiations are at a standstill. Israel's ongoing bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to local health authorities, have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and displaced about 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million population.

Israel is now preparing for an offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians have fled.

Israel says it has dismantled most of the initial two dozen Hamas battalions since the start of the war, but that the four remaining ones are holed up in Rafah.

Israel argues that a Rafah offensive is necessary to achieve victory over Hamas.

Al-Hayya said such an offensive would not succeed in destroying Hamas. He said contacts between the political and military leadership outside Gaza are “uninterrupted” by the war and “contacts, decisions and directions are made in consultation” between the two groups.

Israeli forces “have not destroyed more than 20% of (Hamas’) capabilities, neither human nor in the field,” he asserted.

“If they can’t finish (Hamas) off, what is the solution? The solution is to go to consensus.”

 Cease-fire negotiations are at what stage?

In November, a weeklong cease-fire saw the release of over 100 hostages for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. But talks for a longer-term truce and release of the remaining hostages are now frozen, with each side accusing the other of intransigence. Key interlocutor Qatar has recently said that it is undertaking a “reassessment” of its role as mediator.

Most of Hamas’ top political officials, previously based in Qatar, have left the Gulf country in the past week and traveled to Turkey, where Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday. Al-Hayya denied a permanent move of the group’s main political office is in the works and said Hamas wants to see Qatar continue in its capacity as a mediator in the talks.

'If we are not assured war will end, why would I hand over prisoners?'

Israeli and U.S. officials have accused Hamas of not being serious about a deal. Al-Hayya denied this, saying Hamas has made concessions regarding the number of Palestinian prisoners it wants to be released 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 cease-fire and complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, both of which Israel has balked at. Israel says it will continue military operations until Hamas is definitively defeated and will retain a security presence in Gaza afterward.

“If we are not assured the war will end, why would I hand over the prisoners?” the Hamas leader said of the remaining hostages.

Al-Hayya also implicitly threatened that Hamas would attack Israeli or other forces who might be stationed around a floating pier the U.S. is scrambling to build along Gaza’s coastline 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 force present in these places, Israeli or otherwise … as an occupying power,” he said.

Al-Hayya said Hamas does not regret the Oct. 7 attacks, despite the destruction it has brought down on Gaza and its people. He denied that Hamas militants had targeted civilians during the attacks – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – and said the operation succeeded in its goal of bringing the Palestinian issue back to the world’s attention.

And, he said, Israeli attempts to eradicate Hamas would ultimately fail to prevent future Palestinian armed uprisings. “Let’s say that they have destroyed Hamas. Are the Palestinian people gone?” he asked.

Source: AP