GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? The Palestinians’ incoming prime minister said Sunday that Hamas is interested in a long-term truce with Israel but has no intention of seeking a formal peace agreement that would recognize the Jewish state.

Israel and the U.S. consider Hamas, winner of January’s Palestinian elections, a terror group. Hamas does not recognize the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East and has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, killing hundreds.

Ismail Haniyeh – the incoming Palestinian prime minister – on Sunday denied saying Hamas would consider peace with Israel under certain conditions.

Haniyeh was quoted by The Washington Post as saying Hamas would establish “peace in stages” if Israel would withdraw to its 1967 boundaries.

But Haniyeh told reporters that his comments had been misunderstood. He said he was not referring to a peace agreement, only a “political truce.”