Hamas: The organization’s military wing would dissolve itself if Israel accepted the two-state solution

Hamas would disband its military wing and continue to operate as a political party if Israel accepted the two-state solution in accordance with the pre-1967 borders, he said in an interview on Wednesday Halil al-Hajjaone of the organization’s well-known politicians.

Halil al-Hajja is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who together with others represents Gaza City in the body.

In an interview with the Associated Press, the political leader said: the Islamist armed group is willing to conclude a five-year or longer ceasefire with Israel and lay down its arms if the independent Palestinian state is established according to the conditions. All of this, the news agency emphasized, seems like a significant concession compared to the previous ones on the part of the militant group officially committed to the destruction of Israel.

In the interview in Istanbul, al-Hajja also said that Hamas intends to join the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is led by the rival Fatah faction, to form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank. As he said, Hamas would be ready to accept “a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with international resolutions,” according to Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

As a reminder: the legitimate Palestinian Authority also seeks to establish an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, i.e. the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. The two-state solution is supported by the vast majority of the world’s countries, but the far-right Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu his government categorically rejects this possibility. Thus, it is quite unlikely that Israel would consider such a scenario.

In the interview, Al-Hajja did not address whether the adoption of the two-state solution would mean the end of the Palestinian conflict with Israel, or whether it would only be a temporary step.