It is in an interview in Istanbul, Turkey, where the political leadership of Hamas is at the moment, that Khalil al-Hayya speaks, after negotiations on a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel have come to a standstill.
According to al-Hayya would Hamas to lay down its arms for a two-state solution, where Hamas in Gaza joins forces with Fatah in the West Bank and forms a sovereign Palestinian state with the borders that applied before 1967. Then the military branch of Hamas would be dissolved.
– All experience of people’s struggle against occupations shows that when you become independent and get your rights and your state, what do you do then? People are transformed into political parties and the defense forces become a national army, he tells AP.
That Hamas would accepting a two-state solution goes against its current ideology, which is based on the whole of Palestine being free “from the river to the sea”, i.e. including what is today Israel.
al-Hayya also does not say anything about whether the two-state solution would mean the end of the struggle against Israel, or a transitional period.
It is however unlikely that Israel would consider acceding to the demands, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to crush Hamas militarily following the terror group’s massacre of Israelis on October 7.
The current government is also against the two-state solution within the pre-1967 borders and renouncing the areas taken then.
Israel is also fully preparing for the offensive in Rafah, which has been identified as Hamas’s last military stronghold. Israel claims there are four remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah.
Photo: Kira Hofmann/TT
According to al-Hayya would the offensive does not succeed in eradicating Hamas. He claims in the interview that the contacts between Hamas’s political leadership outside Gaza and the military leadership inside the area are “uninterrupted” and that “decisions and instructions are made by consensus between the two groups”.
He also states that Israel has not succeeded in knocking out more than 20 percent of Hamas’ capabilities.
In the negotiations for a ceasefire between the parties, which have not made any progress in recent months, Hamas will not budge from its demand for a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, al-Hayya said.
– If we are not assured that the war will end, why should we give up the prisoners?
Khalil al-Hayya denies – against overwhelming evidence – that Hamas attacked civilians during the terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October.
He does not regret it, despite what the war meant for the Palestinian people, and claims that it fulfilled its purpose: To focus on the Palestinian issue.
