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.
Hussam 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 are set to go ahead on November 28, the first in 20 years after Hamas won in January 2006. Hamas won 74 of the seats, with Fatah following behind with 45.
Badran asserted that the majority of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, opposed requiring parties to meet conditions based on their political positions 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.
He 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.”
Hamas: Al-Aqsa represents core of the conflict with Israel
Though he criticized the elections for not happening sooner, he also claimed that they were now occurring without a national consensus.
On Hamas’s future priorities, Badran said the group remained focused on the status of the 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 Israel of exploiting the war in Gaza as an excuse to alter the status quo at the site. The Temple Mount, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, is administered day-to-day by the Jordanian Waqf, while Israel maintains overall security control. Under the longstanding arrangements, non-Muslims may visit the site but are not officially permitted to pray there, and Jewish prayer has increasingly been framed as incitement or escalation.
Netanyahu accused of strategically expanding Israeli reach in West Bank
He added that he thought the West Bank had become part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy to expand Israeli reach.
“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 a contentious issue as international bodies have increased the pressure on the Palestinian Authority to end its financial support for those who commit terror attacks against Israel, Badran said Hamas was prioritizing securing the freedom of those currently in detention.
Hamas was able to secure 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.