Hamas giving up arms ‘if occupation ends’
‘Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression.’
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Daily Tribune‘Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression.’
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CIVIL defense workers use an excavator to search for the remains of victims in the rubble of a destroyed building in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, on 6 December 2025. Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilization force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile ceasefire agreement.
Photograph courtesy of eyad baba/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army’s occupation ends.
“Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression,” Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: “If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state.”
Asked by Agence France-Presse, Hayya’s bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestnian state.
“We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya added, signaling his group’s rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.
Meanwhile, Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilization force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.
The measures were spelt out in the United States- and United Nations-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the warring parties have yet to agree on how to move forward from the deal’s first phase.
Its initial steps saw Israeli troops pull back behind a so-called “yellow line” within Gaza’s borders, while Palestinian militant group Hamas released the living hostages it still held and handed over the remains of all but one of the deceased.
“Now we are at the critical moment... A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces (and) there is stability back in Gaza,” Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference.
Qatar, alongside Egypt and the US, helped secure the long-elusive truce, which remains delicate as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching its terms.
Key sticking points have also emerged over the implementation of the second phase, which has yet to begin, including the question of Hamas’s disarmament.
Hamas is supposed to disarm under the 20-point plan first outlined by US President Donald Trump, with members who decommission their weapons allowed to leave Gaza.
Under the plan endorsed by the UN in November, Israel is to withdraw from its positions, Gaza is to be administered by a transitional governing body known as the “Board of Peace” and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
“We need to deploy this force as soon as possible on the ground because one party, which is Israel, is every day violating the ceasefire,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at the Doha Forum.
