Hamas 'implicity accepts Israel'
Updated on 27 June 2006
Hamas reached a political agreement with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but rejected any suggestion that the deal could imply recognition of Israel.
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Abbas had sought to soften Hamas's hard line towards Israel, the movement's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state in the hope of ending a US-led boycott of the cash-strapped Palestinian government by Western donor nations.
Hamas insisted it was sticking to its "agenda of resistance" against Israel.
"The document included a clear clause referring to the
non-recognition of the legitimacy of the Occupation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, using the Islamist group's term for Israel.
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