PALESTINIAN resistance movement Hamas made major concessions to Israel on Monday night when it unveiled its new charter.

The five-page document, the result of four years of debate, was presented by outgoing Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal at a press conference in Qatar’s capital Dohar.

Key shifts in the movement’s position included recognition of the 1967 borders between Israel and the occupied territories as the basis for a future Palestinian state.

While it “rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea” and denies “the legitimacy of the zionist entity,” Hamas said independence of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Stip was “a formula of national consensus.”

It also distanced itself from its historical parent organisation, the Saudi-backed Muslim Brotherhood — outlawed in neighbouring Egypt and facing military defeat in Syria.

The document reflects a “reasonable Hamas, that is serious about dealing with the reality and the regional and international surroundings, while still representing the cause of its people,” said Mr Mashaal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman David Keyes rejected the apparent olive branch, insisting: “Hamas is attempting to fool the world but it will not succeed.

“They dig terror tunnels and have launched thousands upon thousands of missiles at Israeli civilians. This is the real Hamas.”

Meanwhile Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Washington on Monday with a high-ranking delegation, ahead of a meeting with US President Donald Trump and other senior government figures today.