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(Times of Israel) Hamas is prepared to accept a Palestinian state demarcated by the pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as its capital and without any Jewish settlements within its borders, an official in Hamas’s political bureau said, noting that the sole difference in outlook between his organization and Fatah on the matter concerns recognition of Israel.
Moussa Abu-Marzouq, the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau and the top candidate to replace the organization’s chief, Khaled Mashaal, after his expected retirement, said in an interview published on Hamas’s website that Hamas and Fatah had agreed to statehood based on the pre-1967 ceasefire lines as part of a national reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo on May 4, 2011.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly asserted that Hamas agreed to the principle of Palestinian statehood along the pre-1967 lines, but never has a Hamas official so explicitly confirmed those remarks.
Hamas was engaged last week in indirect talks with Israeli officials in Cairo, through Egyptian mediators, to finalize the terms of a ceasefire reached with Israel following Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012.
But Abu-Marzouq denied that Hamas has decided to forgo military confrontation with Israel.
“Claiming that Hamas abandoned the resistance for a long period of time is strange. How can that be argued, when Hamas waged three wars in five years and everything in between was periods of preparation?” he said.
The reason for the lull in attacks in the West Bank is Israeli and PA operations against Hamas operatives, Abu-Marzouq admitted — not a lack of intention on Hamas’s part.
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