{"id":575694,"date":"2026-02-08T18:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/575694\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T18:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:05:11","slug":"hamas-claims-disarmament-endangers-palestinians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/575694\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas claims disarmament endangers Palestinians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hamas will not disarm, because that would make Palestinians an easy victim to be eliminated, Hamas\u2019s external political leader, Khaled Mashaal<\/a>, who lives in Qatar, said Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the context that our people are still under occupation, talking about disarmament<\/a> is an attempt to make our people an easy victim to be eliminated and easily exterminated by Israel, which is armed with all international weaponry,\u201d he said on the second day of the Al Jazeera Forum in Qatar.<\/p>\n

As part of the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, the Gaza Strip is to be demilitarized<\/a>. Hamas is supposed to hand over control of Gaza to an agreed-upon National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. Critics have expressed doubts that Hamas will give up power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is necessary to provide an environment that allows reconstruction and relief and ensures that the war does not reignite between Gaza and the Zionist entity,\u201d Mashaal said. \u201cThis is a logical approach, and Hamas \u2013 through mediators Qatar<\/a>, Turkey, and Egypt, and through indirect dialogues with the Americans via the mediators \u2013 has reached, or there has been, an understanding of Hamas\u2019s vision on that. Yes, this is something that requires great effort, not an approach of disarmament.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is not that Hamas and the resistance forces in Gaza provide guarantees,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem is Israel, which wants to take the Palestinian weapons\u2026 and put them in the hands of militias to create chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PalestiniansPalestinians look at smoke rising from an evacuated residential building which was housing displaced Palestinians after it was hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, September 14, 2025. (credit: REUTERS\/Ebrahim Hajjaj)Anti-Hamas militias allege they received Israeli support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anti-Hamas militias, in particular the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force, have said they receive either support or some degree of protection from Israel.<\/p>\n

As an alternative to disarming, Mashaal said he wants a long-term agreement that stipulates Hamas would not use the weapons it would be allowed to keep for several years. Its promise would be guaranteed by nations that are allied with it, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas proposed a truce of five to seven to 10 years,\u201d Mashaal said. \u201cThis is a guarantee that these weapons are not used.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Lynette Nusbacher, a former British Army intelligence officer and one of the architects behind two of the UK\u2019s National Security Strategies as part of Britain\u2019s National Security Secretariat, told The Jerusalem Post Mashaal\u2019s timeline likely coincides with how long it would take the terrorist group to recover and rebuild after two years of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone understands that Hamas needs to spend a few years rebuilding, training, and rearming,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone understands this. Hamas leadership would prefer to do this undisturbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas can\u2019t agree to disarm,\u201d she added. \u201cThat was always a fantasy which the Americans pretended to accept in order to get the ceasefire, and which the Israelis accepted in order to get their hostages back\u2026 Now, the Americans need to imagine that leaving Hamas alone for a few years will lead to Hamas somehow disappearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael doesn\u2019t have that luxury. Even if the Americans force them to accept a rebuilding phase for Hamas, they will need to prepare for a rebuilt Hamas ready to confront Israel,\u201d Nusbacher said.<\/p>\n

According to Mashaal, \u201cResistance is a right for people under occupation. It is part of international law and the heavenly religions. Resistance is part of the memory of nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

October 7, 2023, was a \u201cturning point\u201d for the cause, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Operation Al-Aqsa] Flood and this genocidal war have shaken the world, he added. \u201cThere is now a question. The Palestinian cause must have a solution. The fact that 159 countries have approved or recognized the Palestinian state is good, but it is not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we turn the Palestinian state into a reality on the ground? That is the big question we are concerned with as Palestinians, as Arabs, as Muslims, and along with our friends around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to entrench that it [Israel] is a pariah entity and a burden on security, stability, and international interests \u2013 to pursue it and turn it into an entity that loses its international legitimacy completely, just like the apartheid regime in South Africa,\u201d Mashaal said. \u201cWe are the owners of a just cause, and the accused is the one who committed the war crime of genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamas will not disarm, because that would make Palestinians an easy victim to be eliminated, Hamas\u2019s external political…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":575695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[82055,10318,145386,70,4526,4527,249921,99,373,200175,233877,50,6673,145385,24922],"class_list":["post-575694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-al-jazeera","tag-doha","tag-donald-trumps-gaza-deal","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-hamas-disarmament","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-khaled-mashaal","tag-national-committee-for-the-administration-of-gaza-ncag","tag-news","tag-qatar","tag-trumps-peace-plan","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116036339373178164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}