Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter doesn't understand that Hamas is not engaged in a border dispute with Israel but in a war over Israel's very existence, Israel said on Monday.

Fresh from talks with Hamas leaders in Damascus, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said in Jerusalem on Monday that Hamas is willing to accept an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal negotiated by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas -- as long as such a deal is approved by the Palestinian people in a referendum.

"They said that they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 border if approved by Palestinians and that they would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbor next door in peace, provided the agreements negotiated by Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert and President Abbas were submitted to the Palestinians for their overall approval -- even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement," Carter told diplomats and journalists at a meeting here.