Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas political official, has made a significant concession by suggesting the terror group would be willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and lay down its weapons to form a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established within pre-1967 borders.
In an interview on Wednesday, al-Hayya said that 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 emphasized that 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.
Al-Hayya’s statement marks a departure from Hamas’s long-held position of rejecting any alternative to the “full liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea,” and could potentially open the door to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, al-Hayya did not specify whether his apparent embrace of a two-state solution would amount to an end to the conflict or an interim step toward Hamas’s stated goal of destroying Israel. Moreover, there was no immediate reaction from Israel or the Palestinian Authority to al-Hayya’s proposal.
Despite Hamas’s concessions, Israeli and U.S. officials have expressed doubts about the group’s sincerity in pursuing a deal. Al-Hayya denied these accusations, claiming that Hamas has made compromises in its demands for releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for remaining Israeli hostages.
Al-Hayya also warned that Hamas would attack Israeli or other forces stationed around a floating pier the U.S. is building to provide aid to Gaza by sea, stating, “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.”
Al-Hayya defended Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, despite the destruction they brought to Gaza, and asserted that the group had not targeted civilians. He expressed confidence that Israeli attempts to eliminate Hamas would ultimately fail to prevent future Palestinian armed uprisings.
“Let’s say that they have destroyed Hamas. Are the Palestinian people gone?” al-Hayya asked.
