Hamas would accept the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, the radical Islamist movement's de-facto prime minister said Wednesday, reported dpa.
Ismail Haniya was speaking to representatives of foreign media invited, in a rare move, to visit Gaza from Israel on his official request.
Hamas leaders have said in the past they would be willing to settle temporarily for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza only - but this would not include recognition of Israel, nor would they then declare the end of the conflict. Instead, they would sign a long-term truce of some 15 years.
"We accept a Palestinian state on 1967 territories with full sovereignty, together with the return of Palestinian refugees and the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails," said Haniya, whose movement controls the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has ruled the coastal enclave since June 2007, when it violently overpowered the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the West Bank.
Haniya slammed Abbas' Fatah party and accused it of coordinating security "with the Zionist enemy."
Holding fair elections "is the only way for all the powers to share the authority," he said, adding his government was "ready for reconciliation" with the rival West Bank-based regime of Abbas and had offered the necessary concessions.
So far, attempts to reunite the Gaza Strip and West Bank and reconcile between the two rival Palestinian movements have come to nothing.
Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.
For Israel, the establishment of a Palestinian state without the Palestinians declaring an end to the conflict and giving up further claims is unacceptable.
Israel has also rejected demands that all Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank and Gaza and in neighbouring Arab states return to what is now Israel, rather than to the future Palestinian state.
The number of registered Palestinian refugees currently stands at 4.7 million, according to the United Nations. dpa sar ok mat Author: Saud Abu Ramadan
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