Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya has represented the Palestinian movement in the negotiations on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange.
According to him, Hamas is willing to enter into at least a five-year ceasefire with Israel and will also lay down its arms and become a political party if Israeli forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and the Palestinians get their own state within the borders from before 1967.
The prerequisite is that Israel recognizes Palestinian refugees’ right to return, in line with international resolutions, says Khalil al-Hayya.
Collective government
Hamas also wants to join the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which is led by its rivals in Fatah, and is open to forming a cooperative government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, he says.
– All the experience of people who have fought against occupiers is that when they became independent and got rights and their own state, they have become political parties and their forces have become the country’s army, says al-Hayya.
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There is little indication that Israel will agree to what may appear to be an outstretched hand from Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a future two-state solution and maintains that Hamas is a terrorist group that must be crushed once and for all after the attack on 7 October.
Will never succeed
Israel will never succeed in this, says Khalil al-Hayya. According to him, after more than half a year of massive bombing in Gaza, the Israeli forces have only destroyed 20 percent of the capacity of the Hamas forces.
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– But what is really the solution when they cannot succeed in putting an end to Hamas? The solution is to reach an agreement, he says.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, have commented on the outcome of the Hamas summit.
Does not disappear
Israel is now threatening to send ground forces into Rafah in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip where over 1.1 million internally displaced Palestinians have sought refuge and claims that the remaining Hamas forces and leaders are hiding there.
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Al-Haya denies that Israel will succeed and says that there is still close contact between the movement’s political leadership, who are abroad, and the military leadership in Gaza.
– The Palestinian people will not disappear either, even if they succeed in crushing Hamas, and new armed groups will then be formed, says al-Hayya.
