Hamas Says We Will Never Recognize Israel!

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday the Islamist militant group Hamas would never recognize Israel.

Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said in an interview from Gaza with Lebanese guerrilla group Hizb'allah's al-Manar television: "Hamas will never recognize the legitimacy of the occupation (Israel)."

"Hamas will never show flexibility over the issue of recognizing the legitimacy of the occupation," he added.

Hamas took control of the Palestinian government last March after winning parliamentary elections a year ago.

The United States and its allies imposed sanctions on the Hamas-led government to pressure it to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim deals. The group has refused to abide by these demands.

Haniyeh said there had been "an encouraging start" to efforts aimed at forming a Palestinian national unity government with rival movement Fatah.

"I am full of hope that these efforts could succeed and I hope that the national unity government could see the light in the nearest time possible if the intentions were honest," he said.

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called for new elections last month, raising the stakes in his power struggle with Hamas. Some Palestinians fear the fighting could lead to civil war.

Haniyeh renewed his rejection of Abbas' election call.

He said Hamas would never agree to conditions set by Western powers, which also included accepting previous interim peace accords signed in the 1990s by the Palestine Liberation Organization with Israel.
Abbas has called for peace talks with Israel.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2001 and have remained deadlocked further since Hamas took power.

Last week, the movement's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal told Reuters in Damascus where he is based that Hamas does "not talk about recognizing Israel or accepting it as a reality".

Barghouti for Shalit

Haniyeh said in the al-Manar interview there was "talk that progress has been achieved" on bids to free an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza by militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. "They used to refuse talking about numbers and now they (Israel) have agreed," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he was willing to free Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel for Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured last June in a cross-border raid by gunmen from Hamas and other factions.

Haniyeh confirmed for the first time that factions had listed jailed Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti among those they wanted freed. Barghouti was jailed by an Israeli court for five life terms for ordering attacks on Israelis.

Israel has in the past refused to free prisoners with "blood on their hands".

Palestinian armed factions have demanded Israel release more than 1,000 prisoners for Shalit. Israel holds some 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, mediating to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap, said at a summit with Olmert this month in Egypt he hoped an agreement would be reached soon.

Y Net News