Senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the terrorist organization never agreed to disarmament as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal for the Gaza Strip.
“Not for a single moment did we talk about surrender the weapons, or any formula about destroying, surrendering or disarmament,” Abu Marzouk claimed in an interview with the Qatari state broadcaster.
According to him, Hamas gunmen have already moved to"restore order” across parts of the Strip from which the Israeli military has withdrawn.
The United States, United Nations and Israel “want international peacekeeping forces, but these forces say it’s not their job to disarm any Palestinian [terrorist] faction in the Gaza Strip,” Abu Marzouk continued.
Disarmament “was never even presented to us,” the Hamas official said, “because after a battle of this magnitude, with such steadfastness, and with the inability of Israel, America and the West to disarm or destroy Hamas’s weapons, did they think they could obtain it through talks?”
Asked about its commitment to cede control of the Strip to the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), which Washington has described as a transitional technocratic body meant to exclude the terror group, Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera that “nobody can enter Gaza without understandings with Hamas.”
“If Hamas doesn’t agree to the administrative committee, it cannot enter the Gaza Strip,” he said, claiming to have veto power over its members.
“We had no objection to the people coming in, except for two. Through the mediators—especially the Egyptian mediator, our brothers in Egypt—we stated this clearly. One was removed from the committee, and the other was barred from crossing and will be replaced,” said Abu Marzouk.
The U.S. State Department told JNS on Wednesday that demilitarizing Hamas remains “a central challenge” to implementing its peace plan.
The statement came in response to a Reuters report that Hamas is seeking to incorporate some 10,000 of its terrorists into the NCAG.
The report, which cited four sources familiar with the matter, noted that many Hamas operatives have already been patrolling Gaza as the terror group is attempting to reassert its grip in areas still under its control.
“Hamas must demilitarize as they agreed to do when they accepted the 20-Point Plan,” according to a U.S. State Department spokesperson, who acknowledged that “conversations on how to proceed” were ongoing.
“The demilitarization of Hamas remains a central challenge—one that we are hopeful we can overcome,” they said. “Demilitarization means Hamas can no longer pose a threat to Israel or the people of Gaza.”
Trump warned on Jan. 21 that Hamas “will be blown away very quickly” if it fails to disarm under the second phase of Washington’s peace plan.
Speaking at a question-and-answer session in Davos after his address to the World Economic Forum, the president said Hamas had “agreed to give up their weapons” as part of his 20-point initiative for the Strip.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, however, has publicly rejected demands that his group disarm, declaring on Dec. 6 that “protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves.
“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation] honor and pride,” the senior terrorist told an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul. He added, “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”
