For nearly two decades, Hamas has been in charge of governing Gaza, overseeing its border crossings, schools and hospitals.
But after nine months of a ruinous war with Israel, the militant group is now expressing readiness to give up civilian governance in Gaza, albeit without dismantling its military wing.
The overture by Hamas, while most likely a nonstarter for Israel, is meant to signal to the international community Hamas’s apparent readiness to make some concessions to enable the rebuilding of Gaza. It also arrives against the backdrop of ongoing cease-fire negotiations, in which Hamas has shown some flexibility on the language in a proposed deal.
“First and foremost, we want the Palestinian people in Gaza to recover from this war,” Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, said in an interview at an unmarked building in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Hamas, Mr. Badran said, would support the formation of a government for Gaza and the occupied West Bank led by independent figures who could work with foreign officials on reconstructing the coastal enclave.
While such a prospect faces major obstacles, Mr. Badran’s comments amounted to one of the most detailed visions yet presented by a Hamas official for the future of Gaza.
A U.S. official confirmed that Hamas had conveyed a willingness to give up civilian control of Gaza. Under a framework cease-fire agreement being discussed in Qatar and Egypt, Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries, would allow a security force loyal to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to assert control over Gaza, according to the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
For Israel, any role for Hamas in postwar Gaza, even an indirect one, is likely to be rejected out of hand. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly vowed to dismantle Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. He has also referred to the so-called day after the war in Gaza, a phrase used to describe plans for the territory, as the “day after Hamas.”
But Hamas remains a formidable force in Gaza, with thousand of active fighters, and many experts say they believe its approval is needed for any plan to rebuild Gaza.
United Nations officials have estimated that rebuilding Gaza will cost tens of billions of dollars, but many donor countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, restricting their ability to work with Hamas-linked institutions in Gaza. An independent government without ties to Hamas could collaborate with the United States, European nations and international organizations to start rebuilding the territory.
“We’re keen that the people will not be from Hamas or considered close to Hamas,” Mr. Badran said, adding that the group was even willing to concede authority over the civil police.
The only qualification, he said, was that the members of the government had to be “nationalistic” and “reliable,” and supported by the various Palestinian factions, including the most prominent: Hamas and Fatah.
But Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads for years, each attempting to present itself as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people. Palestinian analysts remain skeptical that they would agree to join in a united Palestinian front.
Mr. Badran said Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, was blocking the idea.
Munir al-Jaghoub, a Fatah official in the West Bank, said that Mr. Badran’s talk about giving up control in Gaza was just a smoke screen, arguing that Hamas had scuttled previous efforts to cultivate cooperation.
“They want to remain the ones who are actually in power,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
Many Palestinian officials in Ramallah, including Mr. Abbas, have long argued that the authority should be responsible for all affairs in Gaza and the West Bank under a single system and security force.
In late 2017 and early 2018, an initiative to transfer control over ministries in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority from Hamas ended in failure after the motorcade of the authority’s prime minister was blown up in the northern part of the enclave.
But a cease-fire is needed before any effort to reconstruct Gaza can get underway.
Some American officials have grown more optimistic that a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza in return for a cease-fire is at hand. But people briefed on the talks say it will be days until it is clear whether a breakthrough has been achieved.
Other U.S. officials said that previous hopes had been dashed both by Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas. In Washington, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, reflected both the optimism and the caution, noting that many details still had to be hammered out to secure a deal.
“I don’t want to say that it’s immediately around the corner, but it does not have to be far out in the distance if everyone comes in with the will to get it done,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters on Thursday.
Discussions are centered on the two most contentious issues: whether Israel will agree to end the war, withdraw from Gaza and respect a permanent cease-fire; and whether Hamas will agree to give up control of the Gaza Strip, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.
Both Israel and Hamas remain exceptionally wary about whether the other side is ready to make concessions.
Mr. Badran said his group had shown “great flexibility” in discussions with mediators, especially in making language changes, but had held firm to its demand that Israel agree to a permanent cease-fire.
“We’re not obstinate and rigid in negotiating,” he said. “If there are some phrases that will make the negotiations easier and lead to the same result — the end of the war — we have no problem.”
The fact remains that among the dozens of plans that have been proposed for postwar Gaza, none have achieved the broad consensus that Israel, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the international community can live with.
Former Palestinian officials have expressed concerns that a lack of an internationally backed plan will unleash chaos and internecine conflict after the war as people fight for materials to rebuild their homes and reestablish their lives.
Hamas has controlled the government in Gaza since 2007, when it ousted the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in a coup, a role that has allowed it to appoint its members and allies to powerful positions in ministries and other government institutions.
While Hamas officials have expressed frustration in the past about bearing the burden of governance — fixing broken streets and collecting trash — they have used the strings of power to advance their political and social agendas, intimidating opponents, shaping news coverage and enforcing modesty rules.
Still, while Hamas might step back from governing civil affairs Gaza, it has no plans to cede overall control of Gaza. That would mean disbanding its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which Mr. Badran said was a nonstarter.
“The occupation’s army entered Gaza for 10 months and didn’t eliminate the Qassam Brigades,” he said. “Does it want the Qassam Brigades to dissolve itself? That’s illogical.”
Jehad Harb, a Ramallah-based analyst of Palestinian affairs, said that Mr. Badran’s comments showed Hamas would like to play a similar role to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, which dominates the Lebanese government even though it does not run it.
“They want people to work for them,” he said. “They realize that reconstruction won’t happen with a Hamas government. So they want something that appears to be an independent government, but really is controlled by them through their military might.”
Mr. Harb said the government would also allow Hamas to deflect criticism for any delays or challenges in the process of rebuilding Gaza.
“They’ll say we’re not responsible,” he said.
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