Hamas negotiator Razi Hamed told the Wall Street Journal that the group did not agree to disarmament, did not agree to hand over its weapons, and did not agree to any Israeli involvement in the process. The statement is the latest in a series of clarifications from Hamas officials on Friday regarding the group's position on the disarmament issue in the Gaza ceasefire talks.
Hamas negotiator Razi Hamed has explicitly denied any agreement on disarmament, a weapons handover, or Israeli involvement in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Friday. The remarks directly challenge reports that a Gaza ceasefire deal was close, and come as diplomatic efforts continue.
The statement follows earlier clarifications from Hamas on Friday. At 09:15 Jerusalem, the group publicly rejected reports that it had agreed to the Trump plan's disarmament demand, saying it only agreed to store its weapons. Earlier, at 03:16, Hamed told Al Jazeera that disarmament would not begin before an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
As The Zioneer has reported in recent days, multiple rounds of talks in Cairo, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, had raised expectations of a breakthrough. However, Hamas's public statements consistently reiterate that it will not disarm without a full Israeli withdrawal and that any weapons arrangement will be internal Palestinian. The latest remarks suggest that the gap between the sides remains wide on the core issue of disarmament.
3 developments
- DevelopingHamas official tells Al Jazeera: group agreed to disarm, but only after full Israeli withdrawal
- DevelopingSenior Hamas official says group agreed to store weapons, not disarm, in response to Trump
- StrongHamas senior official says weapons storage deal is an internal Palestinian matter, not a disarmament
- DevelopingGoldblatt: Hamas deal's disarmament is window dressing, ideology remains
Source and signal
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