Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-ZuhriReuters

Hamas announced on Tuesday that it opposes the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) draft resolution presented to the UN Security Council which demands that Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2017, reports the Xinhua news agency.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in an emailed statement that the draft resolution presented by the PA to the Security Council "doesn't represent [the] consensus of the Palestinian people."

Abu Zuhri called on the PA to withdraw the resolution, saying, "We believe in Hamas that this draft resolution doesn't cover [all] Palestinians and [t]here is a large factional opposition."

The text of the draft resolution calls for Israel to “end the occupation” - that is, to withdraw from Judea and Samaria - by 2017.

The draft resolution would set a 12-month deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final settlement and the end of 2017 as the time frame for completing an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria.

Hamas’s criticism follows that of Fatah leader and arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who said Monday the UN resolution is an "unjustified fallback which will have a very negative impact on the Palestinian position."

Earlier this week, diplomatic sources estimated that the vote on the unilateral resolution is likely to be postponed.

According to the sources, the PA wants to postpone the vote on the resolution because it realized that its current wording is unacceptable to countries such as France and Luxembourg, two countries that the PA had hoped would support the resolution.

Nevertheless, PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday that he believed the Security Council would vote on the resolution even before the end of 2014.