Hamas leader said on Sunday the group will not disarm, which confounded the requirement of phase two of the Gaza Peace Plan.
Hamas’s external political leader Khaled Mashaal said on the second day of the Al Jazeera Forum in Qatar, “In the context that our people are still under occupation, talking about disarmament 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,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
The second phase of the Trump-brokered Gaza Peace Plan calls for the demilitarisation of Gaza Strip where Hamas is supposed to hand over control of Gaza to an agreed-upon National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
The report also said “anti-Hamas militias, in particular the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force, have said they receive either support or some degree of protection from Israel.”
Mashaal, who resides in Qatar said, “The problem is Israel, which wants to take the Palestinian weapons… and put them in the hands of militias to create chaos.”
Hamas wants to keep the weapons.
He proposed an alternative to disarming, saying he wants a long-term agreement that stipulates Hamas would be allowed to keep the weapons and a guarantee by allied nations that it would not use the weapons.
He also proposed “a truce of five to seven to 10 years,” which is “a guarantee that these weapons are not used.”
Iran has been fighting Israel by funding its proxies abroad like Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah, using oil revenue.
Shortly after the US-Iran talks to push Iran to an agreement of not producing nuclear weapons on Friday, the U.S. announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s Shadow Fleet, which is an underground network of ships used to dodge sanctions and sell Iranian oil abroad.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese military has reportedly been continuing its efforts to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group.
The commander of the U.S. Central Command congratulated the Lebanese armed forces for recently finding a massive underground Hezbollah tunnel for the second time in two months.
