DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas Gaza leader Mahmoud a-Zahar is gravely ill with intestinal cancer. His illness has slowed down the Cairo talks with Hamas leaders on a Palestinian government. A-ZaharÂ’s illness bears radically on the prospects of a formula coming out of the Cairo talks for Hamas to take over Palestinian government. The Americans and Egyptians believe that the indisposition of the most rigidly hardline Hamas leader will ease the prospects of a formula for letting Hamas into a government with which Israel can be asked to live, or at least conduct day-to-day affairs. Khaled MashaalÂ’s statement to the BBC Wednesday, Feb. 8, was the first outward development. A-Zahar was diagnosed with an advanced case before last monthÂ’s Palestinian elections but he kept it secret from Palestinian voters. He is now under treatment at the Cairo military hospital. DEBKAfile sources report that Egyptian and Palestinian doctors attending him are pessimistic about his chances of recovery.
The Islamic terror groupÂ’s senior executive in Gaza, a-Zahar is a rigid hard-liner on relations with the United States and Israel and his movements commitment to armed violence against Israel until its destruction. He is not afraid of a showdown on these issues with the Egyptian mediators of an acceptable US-backed solution that will bring Hamas to government. He is also prepared to defy the Damascus-based Hamas politburo chiefs, Khaled Mashaal and Mussa Marzouk. Ismail Haniya, the second in line for the primacy in Gaza after a-Zahar, is not present at the Cairo negotiations. His public tone is generally more yielding and diplomatic than that of the ailing leader, although his objectives are as absolutist and extremist. But he is believed to be more amenable to pragmatic steps if he believes they will lead eventually to HamasÂ’ cherished goals.
This tendency and A-ZaharÂ’s illness have encouraged the Americans and Egyptians to build on the prospects of a formula that will let Hamas into a government with which Israel can be asked to live, or at least conduct routine day-to-day affairs.
Khaled Mashaal’s statement to the BBC Wednesday, Feb. 8, was the first outcome of this amended approach. He offered a message to the next Israeli government that Hamas would be ready to talk if Israel met certain strict conditions. The most important of these was its pullback to the pre-1967 boundaries. This willingness, he said, would be taken as Israeli recognition of the rights of the Palestinians and the Hamas would "possibly give Israel a long-term truce,” while not renouncing violence.
DEBKAfileÂ’s Middle East sources report that MashaalÂ’s words responded to the proposal Egyptian intelligence minister placed before Mashaal and a-Zahar Tuesday, Feb. 7 with backing from Washington: Hamas must accept a back-seat, wire-puller role in Palestinian government and enter into a long-term truce lasting 10-15 years. The proposition was placed before Hamas leaders as an Egyptian ultimatum.