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Hamas officials say group ready to disarm if Palestinian state established
The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of talks for a cease-fire in Gaza.
But it’s unlikely Israel would consider such a scenario. Israel’s current leadership is adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.
Al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented the Palestinian group in negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage exchange, struck a sometimes defiant and other times conciliatory tone.
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 unified 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 fighting forces have turned into the national army,” he said.
Basem Naim, an Istanbul-based member of Hamas’ political bureau, also told CNN on Thursday that the group would agree to disarm if an independent Palestinian state was established.
“If an independent state with its capital in Jerusalem [Al-Quds], while preserving the right of return for refugees, (is created) Al-Qassam could be integrated into (a future) national army,” he said, referring to the group’s armed wing. Mustafa Barghouti, President of the Palestinian National Initiative, said he wasn’t aware of Hamas offering to lay down its arms before, but said it would be a significant move if true.
Hamas is currently fighting Israeli army which has launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip since October 7 when the resistance group attacked the occupied territories and killed nearly 1,200 Israelis.
Israel’s ensuing bombardment and ground offensive have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health authorities, and displaced some 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Nearly seven months into the war in Gaza, cease-fire negotiations have also stalled. Israel is now preparing for an offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have fled to.
Al-Hayya said such an offensive would not succeed in destroying Hamas. He said contacts between the political leadership outside and military leadership inside 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.”