For 20 Years, Hamas Has Been Offering Isra-l a Long-Term Truce

What were Palestinians supposed to do in response to Isra-l’s abuse and oppression before October 7?

Text written by @caitoz
Followed below with a thread by @DropSiteNews

A much better question than “What was Israel supposed to do in response to October 7?” is “What were Palestinians supposed to do in response to all of Israel’s abuses before October 7?”

Nobody has ever been able to give me a serious response to this question, which doesn’t involve mountains of lies and/ or the dehumanising expectation that Palestinians should accept conditions that none of us would willingly accept ourselves.

That’s why you never see me criticising Hamas. If someone could tell me precisely what Palestinians should have done in response to Israel’s tyranny that they haven’t already tried to obtain real material justice. In that case, I would happily say Hamas should have taken that option instead of resorting to violence. But if such an option truly existed, Hamas would never have been created in the first place. That’s why nobody’s been able to tell me what such an option would look like without lying.

What was Israel supposed to do after October 7? The same thing they should have done before October 7: dismantle the apartheid state, grant everyone equal rights, pay massive reparations, and right all the wrongs of the past. October 7 was a response to the tyranny and abuse of Israel; the correct thing to do when things finally came to a head with the Hamas attack would have been to remove all the tyranny and abuse which gave rise to it.

That’s what Israel should have done. Of course, Israel was never going to do this, for the same reason they spent decade after decade murdering, displacing and oppressing Palestinians since Israel was created. Israel would never allow justice and equality after October 7 for the same reason Israel would never allow justice and equality before October 7: because Israel has always been a settler-colonialist project that can only be sustained by nonstop violence and tyranny and theft and abuse and lies and breathtaking immorality.

That is the reason October 7 happened, and it’s the problem all decent people in the world are trying to address right now.
Aug 3, 2025

- - responding to the OP - -

@tenphihik
Also, not to forget, for 20 years, Hamas has been offering Israel a long-term truce and talks for peace, which Israel has repeatedly either directly rejected or responded to with bombings.

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@DropSiteNews 🧵THREAD

1. Over Two Decades
   For more than two decades, Hamas has offered Israel long-term truces (hudna) in exchange for ending the occupation. Every offer has been rejected.

Today, Hamas has begun presenting mediators with a comprehensive plan for a five-year truce to end the war in Gaza—offering significant concessions.

The resistance movement has not officially released details of its latest ceasefire proposal. Still, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, which cites Egyptian sources and a senior Hamas official familiar with the negotiations, the plan includes:

➤ Full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, with a short, guaranteed timeline backed by mediators.
➤ Release of all Israeli captives, dead and alive, in exchange for ending the war.
➤ A five-year truce with all reconstruction restrictions lifted, based on Egypt’s Arab League-backed plan to rebuild Gaza over 3-5 years.
➤ Hamas steps down from Gaza’s civil administration, including the police. An interim committee, formed and trained by Egypt (with background checks on personnel), would govern.
➤ Resistance weapons remain, but Hamas offers guarantees: arms won’t be used if Israel adheres to the deal, and no new military infrastructure (including tunnels) will be built near Gaza’s border during the truce.
➤ Aid distribution will be monitored by third parties, including the American security firm that oversaw the January 17 ceasefire, as well as tribal leaders unaffiliated with Hamas, to ensure aid reaches civilians and counters Israeli claims of diversion.

Despite major concessions, Hamas’s leadership maintains:
➤ No to disarmament of the resistance.
➤ No to partial deals without full guarantees.

The idea of a hudna is not new, as reported in @jeremyscahill’s latest story on the negotiations. Hamas has suggested such arrangements for decades—and Israel has rejected every offer. Let’s walk through that history. 🔽

@DropSiteNews

2. 1997 | Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’s Offer

   Shortly after his release from an Isra-li prison, Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin proposed a 10-year truce if Isra-l withdrew from the territories occupied in 1967, released Palestinian prisoners, and allowed a Palestinian state.

   In Egypt’s Al-Ahram, Yassin stated:
   “Let’s solve this problem now based on the 1967 borders… Let’s leave the bigger issue for future generations.”

   3. 1997 | 30-Year Truce Offer

   Later, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy confirmed Yassin had made an even wider offer—a 30-year truce—through Jordanian mediators.

   Isra-l rejected it. Seven years later, Yassin was assassinated.

   4. 1999 | Memorandum To Europe

   In a memorandum sent to European diplomats in 1999, Hamas’s leadership presented in explicit terms a long-term truce in return for:

   1. Isra-li withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.

   2. Evacuation of all illegal settlements.

   3. The release of all Palestinians held in Isra-li prisons.

   4. Recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

   5. 2004 | Rantisi Continues Offer

   After Yassin’s assassination, Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi briefly led Hamas. He reaffirmed the long-term truce offer, sticking to the pre-1967 borders as the basis.

   He was assassinated by Isra-l just weeks later.

   6. Post-2006 | Meshaal & Haniyeh Reiterate Hudna

   After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections and took over Gaza’s governance, leaders Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh continued offering a hudna: a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, no recognition of Isra-l, but long-term calm.

   Hamas made similar long-term offers again in 2008 and 2014.

   Isra-l rejected all of them.

   7. 2006, Hudna in the New York Times

   Senior Hamas adviser Ahmed Yousef wrote in the New York Times in 2006 that a hudna is a binding Islamic contract aimed at achieving a permanent, nonviolent resolution.

   He compared it to the IRA’s peace process in the north of Ireland, where arms were decommissioned without recognising British sovereignty.

   “This offer of hudna is no ruse… During this period of calm and negotiation, we can address important issues like the right of return and the release of prisoners.”

   8. 2017 | Hamas Charter

   In 2017, Hamas updated its charter, offering a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, reiterating its hudna approach.

   The charter maintained the right to armed resistance but offered a political resolution based on the pre-1967 map.

   Netanyahu responded by mocking and dismissing the offer—calling it “fake news” and theatrically throwing the document into a trash bin.

   9. Refusing Peace

   For more than 25 years, Hamas has repeatedly offered long-term truces. Isra-l has rejected them—choosing occupation, siege, and war instead.

   Today’s five-year hudna proposal is just the latest chapter.

   Read more in @JeremyScahill and Jawa Ahmad’s latest for Drop Site News