From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Senior Hamas official tries to walk back suggestion that terror group could recognize Israel
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk tries to walk back comments he made earlier, suggesting that his terror group could recognize Israel for the first time as a step toward Palestinian unity.
Abu Marzouk tweets that there was a “misunderstanding of media statements.” He asserts that “Hamas does not recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and does not accept giving up any of the rights of our Palestinian people. We affirm that the resistance will continue until liberation and return.”
“Several points and phrases mentioned in my interview with Al-Monitor were distorted and do not express my position and the position of the movement, which has not changed,” he adds.
Earlier today, he told Al-Monitor, “You should follow the official stance… that the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] has recognized the state of Israel.”
Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh said yesterday that he is open to talks for ending the ongoing war and “putting the Palestinian house in order both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” potentially leading to a “political path that secures the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Hamas has always openly sought Israel’s destruction and has vowed to commit similar onslaughts to the one carried out on October 7 until this is achieved.
Hamas is not part of the PLO, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and recognized Israel as part of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
