A Hamas source close to the group’s negotiating committee has told AFP that the group will not take part in Gaza’s post-war governance.
“For Hamas, the governance of the Gaza Strip is a closed issue. Hamas will not participate at all in the transitional phase, which means it has relinquished control of the Strip, but it remains a fundamental part of the Palestinian fabric,” the source said.
On the question of disarmament, a Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that the weapons handover outlined in the second phase of Trump’s plan is “out of the question and non-negotiable”.
Under Trump’s original plan, the next stage of the deal would involve the dismantling of Hamas’s military infrastructure and the demilitarisation of Gaza, calling for the enclave to become a “deradicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours”.
However a leaked copy of the agreement does not stipulate a weapons handover, nor whom should govern the Strip.
But experts quoted by Al Jazeera have reported that the group have privately communicated to interlocutors that it is open to “a decommissioning process of Hamas’s offensive weapons”.
An armed group has the right to bear arms and resist an occupying power in line with international law.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that “Gaza will be demilitarised”.
“If this is achieved the easy way, then that will be good, and if not, then it will be achieved the hard way.”
