Editing Hamas (section)

==== 2008–2016 ====
In April 2008, former US President [[Jimmy Carter]] met with [[Khaled Mashal]], the recognized Hamas leader since 2004. Mashal said to Carter, Hamas would "accept a Palestinian state on the [[Six-Day War|1967 borders]]" and accept the right of Israel "to live as a neighbour" if such a deal would be approved by a referendum among the "Palestinians". Nevertheless, Mashal did not offer a unilateral ceasefire (as Carter had suggested him to do). The US State Department showed utter indifference for Mashal's new stance; Israel's Prime Minister [[Ehud Olmert]] even refused to meet with Carter in [[Jerusalem]], not to mention paying attention to the new Hamas stance.<ref name=jazeera,22Apr2008>[[Al Jazeera English]], [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2008/04/2008615098393788.html "Hamas ready to accept 1967 borders"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922035242/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2008/04/2008615098393788.html |date=22 September 2020 }}. 22 April 2008.</ref>

On 19 June 2008, Hamas and Israel agreed to a six-month cease-fire,<ref name="Ref_2008">{{Citation|title=Hamas declares Israel truce over|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7791100.stm|work=BBC News|date=22 December 2008|access-date=3 January 2010|archive-date=18 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118015406/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7791100.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> which Hamas declared finished at 18 December<ref name="bjt-tip-point-cross-border-figthing">{{Citation|url=http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/cover_story/tipping_point/9631 |title=Tipping Point After years of rocket attacks, Israel finally says, 'Enough!' |last=Jacobs |first=Phil |date=30 December 2008 |work=Baltimore Jewish Times|access-date=7 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115020744/http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/cover_story/tipping_point/9631 |archive-date=15 January 2009 }}</ref> amidst mutual accusations of breaching the agreed conditions.<ref name="Ref_2008"/>

Meanwhile, in November 2008, in a meeting with 11 [[Europe]]an members of parliaments, Hamas senior official [[Ismail Haniyeh]] repeated what he had written in June 2006 to U.S. President George W. Bush but with one extra condition: "the Hamas government had agreed to accept a Palestinian state that followed [[Six-Day War|the 1967 borders]] and to offer Israel a long-term ''[[hudna]]'' (truce), if Israel recognized the [[Palestinian right of return|Palestinians' national rights]]" – a proposal which he said Israel had declined.<ref name="offer 2008">{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/haniyeh-hamas-willing-to-accept-palestinian-state-with-1967-borders-1.256915 |title=Hamas willing to accept Palestinian state with 1967 borders |author=Amira Hass |date=9 November 2008 |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=16 April 2014 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010124644/https://www.haaretz.com/news/haniyeh-hamas-willing-to-accept-palestinian-state-with-1967-borders-1.256915 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In September 2009, [[Ismail Haniyeh]], [[Governance of the Gaza Strip|head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip]], wrote to UN Secretary General [[Ban Ki-moon]] that Hamas would support any steps leading to a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders: "We would never thwart efforts to create an independent Palestinian state with borders [from] June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital."<ref name="offer 2009">{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/haniyeh-to-un-chief-hamas-accepts-palestinian-state-in-67-borders-1.7460|title=Haniyeh to UN chief: Hamas accepts Palestinian state in '67 borders|author=Yoav Segev|date=22 September 2009|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=25 February 2012|archive-date=8 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008015926/http://www.haaretz.com/news/haniyeh-to-un-chief-hamas-accepts-palestinian-state-in-67-borders-1.7460|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 2010, [[Khaled Mashal]], chairman of the [[#Political Bureau|Hamas Political Bureau]] (thus Hamas' highest leader), again stated that a state "Israel" living next
to "a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967" would be acceptable for Hamas – but only if a referendum among "the Palestinian people" would endorse this arrangement. In November 2010, [[Ismail Haniyeh]],{{efn|Haniyeh at the time was the (overall) [[Prime Minister of the State of Palestine]] but as such was dismissed<ref name=bbc_dissolve>{{cite news|title=Abbas sacks Hamas-led government|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6754499.stm|date=14 June 2007|access-date=14 June 2007|work=[[BBC News]]|archive-date=27 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070827140345/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6754499.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> by President [[Mahmoud Abbas|Abbas]] in 2007; nevertheless he remained [[Governance of the Gaza Strip|head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip]].}} also proposed a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, though added three further conditions: "resolution of [[Palestinian refugees#Palestinian views|the issue of refugees]]", "the release of Palestinian prisoners", and "Jerusalem as its capital"; and he made the same reservation as Mashal in May 2010 had made, that a Palestinian referendum needed to endorse this arrangement.<ref name="Beinart" >[[Peter Beinart]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=v0U1fjErMGkC&pg=PT231 ''The Crisis of Zionism,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320153321/https://books.google.com/books?id=v0U1fjErMGkC&pg=PT231#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=20 March 2024 }} Melbourne University Press 2012, p. 219. Statement of Mashal in May 2010: 'If Israel withdraws to the borders of 1967, it doesn't mean that it gives us back all the land of the Palestinians. But we do consider this as an acceptable solution to have a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967... the Palestinian state will have a referendum and the Palestinian people will decide. We in Hamas will respect the decision of the Palestinian majority.' Haniyeh in November 2010: 'We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of [[Palestinian refugees#Palestinian views|the issue of refugees]].... Hamas will respect the results (of a referendum) regardless of whether it differs with its ideology and principles.' (Beinart refers to the original sources of those statements, respectively ''[[Current Affairs (magazine)|Current Affairs]]'' 28 May 2010 and ''[[Haaretz]]'' 1 December 2010.)</ref><ref name="UWR">David Whitten, Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5v-iBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA250 ''Understanding World Religions: A Road Map for Justice and Peace''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320153330/https://books.google.com/books?id=5v-iBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA250#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=20 March 2024 }}, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p. 250</ref>

On 1 December 2010, [[Ismail Haniyeh]] (senior Hamas leader, see above), in a news conference in [[Gaza City|Gaza]], repeated his November 2010 message: "We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees," but only if such arrangement would be endorsed by "a referendum" held among all Palestinians: in Gaza, West Bank, and the diaspora.<ref name="offer 2010">{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-vows-to-honor-palestinian-referendum-on-peace-with-israel-1.328234|title=Hamas Vows to Honor Palestinian Referendum on Peace with Israel: Islamist Leader Ismail Haniyeh Says He Would Accept a Deal with Israel Based on 1967 Borders and Denies that Gaza has Become a Stronghold for Al-Qaida|date=1 December 2010|newspaper=Haaretz|agency=Reuters|access-date=25 February 2012|archive-date=15 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015233322/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-vows-to-honor-palestinian-referendum-on-peace-with-israel-1.328234|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 2011, Hamas and [[Fatah]] signed an agreement in [[Cairo]], agreeing to form a ('national unity') government and appoint the Ministers "in consensus between them", but it contained no remarks about how to confront or deal with Israel.<ref>[http://peacemaker.un.org/node/463 Text of the Hamas-Fatah Agreement, made in Cairo on 3 May 2011.]. Website peacemaker.un.org. Retrieved 21 February 2024.</ref>  In February 2012, Hamas and [[Fatah]] signed the [[Fatah–Hamas Doha Agreement]], agreeing (again) to form an interim national consensus government, which (again) did not materialize.

Still in February 2012, according to the [[Palestinian National Authority#Two PNA administrations|Palestinian authority]] (either the [[Fatah]] branch in West Bank or the Hamas branch in Gaza), Hamas forswore the use of violence against Israel ("ceasefire", an Israeli news website called it), followed by a few weeks without violence between Hamas and Israel.<ref name="IBZ 14Mar2012">{{cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/37526/ |title=The eye of the Islamic Jihad storm |first=Ilan |last=Ben Zion |date=14 March 2012 |work=The Times of Israel |access-date=9 October 2023 |archive-date=10 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010155019/https://www.timesofisrael.com/37526/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Tab">{{cite news |first=Marc |last=Tracy |author-link=Marc Tracy |date=12 March 2012 |title=Terrorist Killing Prompts Gaza Rocket Exchange |work=Tablet Magazine |url=http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/93795/terrorist-killing-prompts-gaza-rocket-exchange/ |access-date=31 March 2012 |archive-date=2 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402114940/http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/93795/terrorist-killing-prompts-gaza-rocket-exchange/ |url-status=live }}</ref> But violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, also involving Hamas, [[Gaza–Israel conflict#Operation "Returning Echo"|would soon resume]].