Hamas deputy calls for truce with Israel

• Tweet

CAIRO, April 21 (UPI) -- Top Hamas official Abu Marzook said in an interview Palestine would not honor a peace treaty with Israel, instead saying a cease-fire should be reached.

The deputy chairman of Hamas Political Bureau called for "a relationship between the two states in the historic Palestinian land as a hudna [truce] between both sides," in an interview with The Forward newspaper in his Cairo home Thursday.

This is the first time a senior Hamas official has agreed to an in-depth interview with a Jewish publication.

"It's better than war and better than the continuous resistance against the occupation," he added. "And better than Israel occupying the West Bank and Gaza, making all these difficulties and problems on both sides."

Marzook stressed the Islamist movement will not recognize a treaty, or any other agreement which requires Hamas to recognize Israel as a state.

"We will not recognize Israel as a state," he said. "It will be like the relationship between Lebanon and Israel or Syria and Israel."