Hamas leader and Gaza de facto prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday morning he would recognize Israel but only on condition that the Jewish state accept a legal Arab regime in an independent state including Judea, Samaria and Gaza. "A Palestinian state will not be created at this time except in the territories of 1967," he stated. "Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation."

Haniyeh did not make any mention of the conditions set by Israel, the European Union (EU) and the United States that it abandon terrorism and accept existing PA-Israeli agreements.