Hamas plans to participate in the upcoming Palestinian elections, a senior official from the Iran-backed terrorist organization told Hamas-operated Al-Aqsa TV on Wednesday.
Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said the group would participate as part of a broad national coalition.
Elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) are set to take place on November 28, for the first time in 20 years since Hamas won the January 2006 election. Hamas won 74 seats, while Fatah won 45.
Prof. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said Badran’s comments might be a “hint” that Hamas is planning to run under a newly formed party or unite with exiled Fatah figure Mohammed Dahlan.
“This new party will accept Abu Mazen’s [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] terms, while Hamas will be able to continue declaring that it has not withdrawn from its principles and resistance ideology,” he said. “I still believe that Hamas will not participate in the election as Hamas because it will not agree to accept Abu Mazen’s terms. If it accepts them, it is not Hamas anymore.”
Hamas: Al-Aqsa represents core of the conflict with Israel
Badran asserted that the majority of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, opposed requiring parties to meet conditions based on their political positions in order to run. Those running in the election are required to formally recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
Badran described the elections as “a historic opportunity to bring about change in the Palestinian situation and end the state of unilateral decision-making in the national decision that has continued for two decades.”
While he criticized the elections for not taking place sooner, he also claimed they were being held without national consensus.
On Hamas’s future priorities, Badran said that the group remained focused on the status of both al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem. The mosque, located on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, has been at the center of growing tensions, with Arab and Muslim countries condemning the increased presence of Jewish worshippers and prayers at the site last week.
He claimed that the mosque represented the core of the conflict with Israel and accused the Jewish state of exploiting the war in Gaza as an excuse to alter the status quo at the site.
The Temple Mount, which houses al-Aqsa Mosque compound, is administered by the Jordanian Waqf, while Israel maintains overall security control. Under longstanding arrangements, non-Muslims may visit the site but are not officially permitted to pray there, and Jewish prayer there has increasingly been framed by critics as an act of incitement or escalation.
Netanyahu accused of strategically expanding Israeli reach in West Bank
He added that he believed the West Bank had become part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy to expand Israeli control.
“The Netanyahu government has adopted the slogan of resolving the conflict with the Palestinian people, particularly in the West Bank,” he said. “As Israeli elections approach, Palestinian blood becomes the most important propaganda tool for the occupation across all its parties.”
On the issue of Palestinian prisoners – which has remained contentious as international bodies increase pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to end its financial support for those who commit terrorist attacks against Israel – Badran said Hamas was prioritizing securing the freedom of those currently in detention.
The terror group secured the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in hostage-prisoner exchanges following its October 7 invasion of southern Israel, which it also used to bolster its propaganda campaign and rally support for the organization.
Harel Chorev, a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center specializing in the social and political history of the Palestinians, told The Jerusalem Post that the interview was carried out on behalf of the “so-called pragmatic fraction of Hamas,” whose members are aware “that the game has significantly changed following October 7.”
Those who subscribe to this viewpoint advocate merging Hamas into the PLO to create an “agreeable, common ground and fight against the common enemy, Israel,” he said.
“Hamas is also emphasizing political activity over military activity. One may call it pragmatic, but the goal at the end of the day is not different. They will not accept Israel, and they will not change ideologically. But they want to handle the crisis in a different, more moderate way,” Chorev added.
“Hamas needs to change its course and adapt to shifting realities by entering the political arena in order to both survive and adjust,” he explained, noting that although Khalil al-Hayya had been elected as Hamas’s new leader in July, Khaled Mashal, whom he described as “the father of” the pragmatic approach, remained a popular choice.