A Hamas leader said the militant group could accept creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and a long-term truce with Israel, signaling a possible new overture to end hostilities.
Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, has made such offers before, but this was the first time since the Nov. 11 death of Yasser Arafat and reflects a softening of the Islamic group’s tone before a Palestinian election next month.
“The whole world should seize this opportunity and build on it because this is a realistic position being taken by the Hamas movement,” Hassan Youssef, the top Hamas official in the West Bank, told Reuters on Friday.
But a senior Israel official dismissed the proposal, calling it a ruse aimed at “destroying Israel in stages.”
Youssef said Hamas would accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with a capital in Jerusalem, if Israel removed all troops and Jewish settlers and stopped military operations in the territories.
“Of course, we would accept,” Youssef said. “Then we can have a cease-fire for a period of time ... It may be a long period.”
But he stopped short of saying Hamas would recognize Israel’s right to exist or give up its claim to all of the land that was Palestine under the British mandate preceding the creation of Israel more than 50 years ago.
A number of Hamas officials have previously said they would accept an independent state in the territories but only as a step toward taking over Israel.
“I am talking about establishing a state within the 1967 borders,” Youssef said, referring to the lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Just a day before, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, suggested the group would consider suspending attacks on Israel to allow a smooth election for Arafat’s successor on Jan. 9.
But he stuck to Hamas' long-standing conditions, including a halt to Israeli raids in Palestinian areas.
Despite Hamas' decision to boycott next month’s vote, the group does not want to be seen obstructing the election, especially at a time when violence-weary Palestinians are looking for an orderly transition of power.
The Israeli official said the army would act with restraint if calm prevailed but reserved the right to strike at “ticking bombs” if Palestinian security services failed to take action.
Hamas is the main group that has spearheaded a campaign of suicide bombings against Israel since the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising in 2000 after talks broke down on establishment of a Palestinian state.
In January, Hamas' Gaza chief proposed a 10-year-truce if Israel withdrew from the occupied territories, an offer the Israeli government swiftly rejected. The official, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, was killed in an Israeli air strike in April.
Hamas' latest overtures follow efforts by PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas, the favorite in the presidential race, to coax militants into suspending attacks on Israelis before a Palestinian election the militant group is boycotting.
Abbas is the candidate for Fatah, the dominant Palestinian faction, which seeks a state side-by-side with Israel.
