DOHA — The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will remove a call for Israel’s destruction and drop its association with the Muslim Brotherhood in a new policy document to be issued on Monday, sources said.
Hamas’s move appears aimed at improving relations with Gulf Arab states and Egypt, which label the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, as well as with Western countries, many of which classify Hamas as a terrorist group over its hostility to Israel.
The sources said Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, will say in the document that it agrees to a transitional Palestinian state along the borders from 1967, when Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
A future state encompassing Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem along 1967 borders is the goal of Hamas’ main political rival, the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The revised Hamas political document will still reject Israel’s right to exist and back “armed struggle” against it, sources said.
A Hamas spokesman in Qatar declined to comment.
The sources said the Hamas document was being released ahead of a planned visit by Abbas to Washington on May 3 and as Donald Trump administration prepares to make a renewed push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Analysts say the revised document could allow Hamas to mend relations with Western countries and pave the way for a reconciliation agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, now also headed by Abbas.
US-allied Arab states including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia classify the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. The 89-year-old Brotherhood held power in Egypt for a year after a popular uprising in 2011. — Reuters
