The Palestinian Authority is working with US officials on a plan to govern Gaza after the war ends, with one of its top leaders arguing that Israel’s goal of completely defeating Hamas is unrealistic and that the Palestinian armed group should instead of this to join it under a new government structure.

Speaking to Bloomberg in his West Bank office on Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Staiyeh said the best outcome of the conflict would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the Palestine Liberation Organization, helping to build a new independent state. which will include the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

“Hamas before October 7 is one thing and then it’s another,” said Staiyeh, a 65-year-old economist who has run the Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas since 2019. “If they are ready to reach an agreement and accept the political platform of the PLO, then there will be room for discussion. The Palestinians must not be divided.”

The Israeli prime minister’s response was fierce: “There will be no Hamas, we will eliminate it,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The fact that this is the Palestinian Authority’s proposal only reinforces my policy: The Palestinian Authority is not the solution”

US officials visited Abbas earlier this week to discuss the plan for the next day of the war in Gaza, the Palestinian official said.

Both sides agreed that Israel should not reoccupy Gaza, limit its territory by creating a buffer zone, or expel the Palestinians.

“We are not going there for an Israeli military plan,” Stayeh said. “Our people are there. We need to create a mechanism, for which we are working with the international community. There will be enormous needs for relief and reconstruction to repair the wounds.”

Staiyeh will travel to Qatar this weekend to ask Doha to transfer its financial support to Hamas in recent years to the Palestinian Authority, giving it more resources to achieve its post-war goals.

Staiyeh’s idea that Hamas might work with the Palestinian Authority seems hopeful, not only because Hamas expelled the party from Gaza after the 2007 civil war, but because four subsequent agreements between the sides have not been implemented, Bloomberg reports .

Asked why Israel cannot eliminate Hamas, Stajex said: “Hamas is in Lebanon, everyone knows that the leadership of Hamas is in Qatar and here in the West Bank.”

“What Israel is doing in Gaza is an act of revenge,” he said, adding that “this is not going to get them anywhere. At least half a million Gazans are likely to be left homeless after the war.”

Stayeh, who has been involved in the Palestinian Authority for years after teaching economics and being a university administrator, said both Palestinian and Israeli youth are becoming more fanatical and the chance for a peace deal between the two sides is fading fast.