Media: Hamas leaders debate proposal to transform into political party

Hamas leaders from inside and outside the Gaza Strip have opened an internal debate over the group’s political trajectory amid the shifting landscape created by Israel’s two-year war following the October 7, 2023 attacks, according to sources within the movement.

The sources, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, said several senior figures have submitted a detailed proposal urging Hamas to reposition itself as a political actor capable of operating within both Palestinian and international arenas. The document calls for the establishment of a political party “similar to existing political groups that continue to represent a national Islamic political approach, presenting itself as a body capable of taking part in political, economic, social and general public life.”

According to the sources, the proposal advocates “a comprehensive Palestinian reconciliation that secures this project, including participation in the Palestine Liberation Organization while working to reorganise and restructure it through a broad national agreement that allows for the inclusion of all parties, and restores the Palestinian political system’s relevance.”

The paper also pushes for greater regional and international engagement, urging openness to Arab and Islamic states as well as global actors by “opening political channels with all these parties, and transforming into an important political actor that ensures the movement’s survival away from its weapons.”

The initiative has reportedly been circulated among Hamas’s political bureau, Shura Council, supreme leadership council and other internal bodies as part of a wider review launched after the war. That review examines the movement’s political stance, internal cohesion and external relations in light of heavy losses, leadership assassinations, and commitments under the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire agreement reached in October.

Asked whether the proposal reflected concern over disarmament, one of its sponsors, a senior Hamas official based abroad, said it emerged “after a relatively stable political period inside the movement following the ceasefire agreement.” 

The official stressed that the proposal “is not essentially about the weapons of the resistance. It is more about the need to adapt to the political shifts in the region in a way that prevents the elimination of Hamas as a Palestinian movement that has waged many struggles, especially after Israel’s military machine failed to achieve that goal.”

The senior figure said discussions over Hamas’s weapons were ongoing with Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye and “even indirectly with the United States,” adding that any future arrangement “must be through a Palestinian national agreement on the weapons of the resistance, with no Israeli role.”

Advocates of the political shift argue that Hamas must “think outside the box,” recognising that “weapons alone, including rockets and tunnels, cannot guarantee the movement’s future.” They note the war’s toll on Hamas’s popular base and warn that shifting regional dynamics—and the latest US draft resolution at the UN—pose risks to Palestinian unity and statehood prospects.

Despite pressure from mediators and some backers to accept disarmament and step aside in Gaza, Palestinian sources say Hamas and allied factions favour a long-term truce. They believe the current talks could help pave the way for a broader regional agreement that revives prospects for a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

By Sabina Mammadli