Senior Hamas official floats idea of Israel recognition

Tel Aviv: For the first time since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, a senior leader of the militant group said on Thursday, December 14, they could recognize the Jewish nation as part of the Palestinian unity talks.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, one of the highest-ranking Hamas leaders who has been actively meeting global leaders to garner support, told Arab mediapersons that the official stance was that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had recognized Israel and that Hamas should follow it.

This is being seen as a move for peace from the Hamas side, as the Israeli military is putting grave pressure on the militant group’s leadership and the possibility of its ouster from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has always openly sought Israel’s destruction and vowed to commit similar onslaughts to the one carried out on October 7.

The PLO, which heads the Palestine Authority that runs the West Bank, had recognized Israel as part of the Oslo Accords signed between then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin on September 13, 1993.

Rabin was assassinated in Israel in 1995 by a person who belonged to an extreme right-wing group that was against the Oslo Accords.