Under military pressure, a top Hamas official suggests recognizing Israel

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk suggests that the Palestinian terror group could recognize Israel for the first time as a step toward Palestinian unity, potentially indicating the pressure it is currently under amid Israel’s military campaign to oust it from the Gaza Strip.

The development comes shortly after 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.

The rival Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, recognized Israel as part of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, though it doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

“You should follow the official stance. The official stance is that the PLO has recognized the state of Israel,” Abu Marzouk tells Al-Monitor.