A Hamas official told Al Jazeera on Friday that the terror group has agreed to disarm, but conditioned the weapons handover on a complete Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip before any disarmament takes place. The condition is the opposite of the agreed framework, under which the IDF is to leave only after Hamas has fully disarmed.
A Hamas official told Al Jazeera on Friday that the group has agreed to the U.S.-brokered disarmament plan, but insisted that the weapons handover will only occur after all Israeli forces leave the Gaza Strip. The statement is the first time a Hamas source has publicly confirmed the group's agreement to the framework while simultaneously adding a condition that reverses the agreed sequence.
The framework, as announced by the Board of Peace earlier Friday, stipulates that Hamas will fully disarm first, followed by an Israeli withdrawal. As The Zioneer reported at 09:33 Jerusalem, the Board of Peace described the roadmap as a 'historic achievement' and said Hamas had formally committed to it. The U.S. and Israeli position has been that the IDF will not withdraw until disarmament is complete.
The new statement to Al Jazeera comes hours after senior Hamas negotiator Razi Hamed told the Wall Street Journal that the group had not agreed to disarmament or any Israeli involvement. That denial, published at 09:22 Jerusalem, cast doubt on the entire framework. The Al Jazeera report introduces a third version of Hamas's stance — an acknowledgment of the agreement but with a condition that contradicts the agreed order.
The conflicting signals from within Hamas — a formal commitment to the Board of Peace, a denial to the WSJ, and a conditional confirmation to Al Jazeera — highlight the deep internal divisions or tactical ambiguity within the organization. The 'zero trust' framework was designed precisely to address such mistrust between the parties, but the divergent statements complicate the path to implementation.
2 developments
- StrongHamas senior official says weapons storage deal is an internal Palestinian matter, not a disarmament
- StrongHamas, Islamic Jihad reject disarmament reports; Hamed tells WSJ no to Israeli involvement
- DevelopingReport: Hamas demands disarmament of Israeli-linked militias, defines its weapons as 'legitimate resistance tools'
- StrongMladenov: Gaza reconstruction, IDF withdrawal hinge on Hamas disarmament
Source and signal
A single-sourced dispatch is never rated Confirmed or Strong. Its Signal strengthens only when a second, independent source corroborates it.
- Open-source intake