world news
Dissolving Hamas’ military, forming sovereign Palestinian state would bring ‘change’ – expert
Hamas, through a senior official, stated its readiness to enter a cease-fire of five years or more with Israel and transition into a political entity if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. The official, Khalil al-Hayya, considered Sinwar’s right hand, expressed these views during a recent interview amidst stalled cease-fire negotiations.
Dr. Ghassan Khatib, a lecturer at Birzeit’s University and former minister of labor for the Palestinian Authority, provided his perspective to The Media Line. “It’s worth waiting to see if this statement reflects a significant shift,” he noted, highlighting a common inconsistency between individual remarks by Hamas leaders and the group’s official stance.
Dr. Khatib further explained the internal dynamics within Hamas: “The statement can also reflect dissent and the debate within Hamas. Different leaders have different views, but it could also be a tactic, considering the imminent threat of the Israeli army to enter Rafah.”
He added that while the promise to dissolve the military wing and pursue a sovereign state was notable, “Hamas being willing to put its guns down isn’t something you hear every day. Dissolving the military wing of Hamas and falling in line with a Sovereign Palestinian State on the 1967 borders would bring a powerful change.”
“Whatever the reasons they make this statement now, it’s important to dialogue with Hamas because they are a very relevant part of Palestinian internal politics. Whether the Israelis like it or not, that’s the fact. Even if the statement made by Al-Hayya has conditions unlikely to be accepted by Israel, it is important to continue the dialogue, and this is also true for America and other Western countries,” he concluded.
Natural skepticism
While Dr. Khatib emphasizes the importance of dialogue with Hamas despite skepticism about their intentions, some suggest a more cautious perspective, questioning the sincerity of Hamas’ statements and suggesting that their motives may be influenced by the immediate threat of Israeli military action.
Chuck Freilich, former deputy national security adviser and senior fellow in INSS, told The Media Line, “Hamas is aware of its imminent demise if the IDF enters Rafah. Making remarkable statements, such as the one made by Al-Hayya, gives them more time and feeds into the narrative believed by their supporters worldwide. Still, Israeli leaders should pursue this dialogue in the future if we have a different government.”
“If this statement made by Al-Hayya is serious, then they should be open to dialogue after the Israeli conducts its plans to go into Rafah. It’s doubtful that Israel would entertain such dialogue, as it remains committed to dismantling Hamas. After Hamas is removed from Rafah, then the Palestinians should announce an initiative with their top leaders or with a formal declaration,” concluded Chuck Freilich.
While Hamas has previously maintained a hardline stance against Israel, this shift towards a potential two-state solution represents a notable concession. However, it remains unclear if this signifies a permanent resolution to the conflict or merely an interim step toward Hamas’ longstanding goal of Israel’s destruction.
Israel nor the Palestinian Authority have yet to comment.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday it was important to ensure Hamas terrorists can never govern Gaza again, the State Department said, with their call coming after President Donald Trump suggested Egypt and Jordan should take more Palestinians.
Trump on Saturday floated a plan to “clean out” Gaza, where Israel’s war has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, in comments that echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes.
The suggestion by Trump was not mentioned in the US State Department statement released on Tuesday after the call between Rubio and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
Jordan and Egypt had pushed back over the weekend after Trump’s comments that they should take in Palestinians from Gaza. Asked if this was a temporary or long-term solution, Trump had said: “Could be either.”“He (Rubio) also reinforced the importance of holding Hamas accountable,” the State Department said after Tuesday’s call.
“The Secretary reiterated the importance of close cooperation to advance post-conflict planning to ensure Hamas can never govern Gaza or threaten Israel again.”
Context
Rubio held a call a day earlier with Jordan’s King Abdullah, and the US statement after that call, too, did not mention Trump’s remarks on Palestinian displacement.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
An Israeli aircraft attacked in the Tulkarm area as part of an IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) joint operation, the military announced on Monday.
Later reports in Israeli media clarified that the airstrike occurred in the Nur a-Shams refugee camp.
Footage from the scene indicates that a car was destroyed, leading to an explosive fire with a pillar of smoke rising into the sky.
Two Palestinians were in the vehicle at the time of the airstrike, according to Palestinians quoted in Israeli media.The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that one of the passengers was killed and the other was moderately injured, according to Israeli media reports.
Wider context
This comes amid the IDF’s Operation Iron Wall, aiming to remove Palestinian terrorists from Jenin and the wider area.
The IDF began a wide-ranging operation on Palestinian terror in Jenin last Tuesday, killing several terrorists in the mission meant to last a minimum of several days and potentially much longer.
The campaign, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall,” includes drones and helicopter air support. There were also reportedly tanks in the vicinity – although not entering Jenin – and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Duvdevan, Egoz, other special forces, and engineering forces from Battalion 90 were all involved.
The Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) stated that China, Israel, and Myanmar are the “world’s three worst offenders” for imprisoning journalists in 2024, according to a report published by the organization on Thursday.
The report stated that while other egregious offenders, such as China, Myanmar, Belarus, and Russia, “routinely rank among the top jailers of journalists,” Israel rarely appeared in CPJ censuses before the October 7 massacre.
According to the report, Israel rose to second place as it “tried to silence coverage from the occupied Palestinian territories,” adding that “all detained by Israel on the day of CPJ’s census are Palestinian.” The CPJ report claims that 43 Palestinian journalists were held in Israeli custody as of December 1, 2024.
The report did not take into account that Israel has regularly discovered journalists either embedded with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, linked alleged journalists directly as members of terror groups, or killed terrorists whose journalistic ties are later revealed.However, the report did not focus exclusively on Israel but rather on the general increase of authoritarian arrests of journalists across the world, criticizing the authorities in China, Myanmar, Russia, and Belarus, respectively, to an equal extent.
“At least 10 journalists” are held in administrative detention centers where prisoners are subjected to “inhuman conditions,” the report added.
Lawyers who visited some of the detainees told CPJ that Israeli authorities informed the journalists that they were arrested because they had contacted individuals whom Israel wanted information about.
Such arrests are “symptomatic of Israel’s broader effort to prevent coverage of its actions in Gaza,” according to the report. CPJ also reported that Israel banned foreign correspondents from entering Gaza and banned Al Jazeera.
Other CPJ reports discussing Israel
CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna was quoted in a report titled Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war that “Journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting” since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
CPJ stated in the report that IDF spokespeople repeatedly tell media outlets that IDF policy does not deliberately target journalists and added that IDF reportedly told news agencies that they cannot guarantee the safety of journalists.
A separate January 17 report by CPJ stated that the journalists’ attorneys claimed their arrests by Israel were in retaliation for their journalism and commentary.
The January 17 report notes that 30 journalists, including three held by the Palestinian Authority, have been released since their arrests over the last 15 months.
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