Published date: 17 October 2025 21:23 BST
Hamas will not automatically commit to disarming and hopes the ceasefire with Israel will last three to five years to rebuild Gaza, Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.
Asked if Hamas would give up its arms, Nazzal said: "I can’t answer with a yes or no. Frankly, it depends on the nature of the project. The disarmament project you’re talking about, what does it mean? To whom will the weapons be handed over?”
Arab diplomats previously told Middle East Eye that mediators were in discussions with Hamas about turning its weapons over to Arab peacekeepers or locking up long-range weapons such as missiles instead of destroying them.
Isreal has already bombed Gaza. Predictable to everyone.
Hamas will not automatically commit to disarming and hopes the ceasefire with Israel will last three to five years to rebuild Gaza, Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.
I hope that’s politician-speak for some manner of bet-hedging, because if he genuinely believes the ceasefire will last any time at all, even if Hamas met all of Israel’s requests, he’s out of his gourd.
You are asked to disarm and never have these weapons again.
If your response is that whether you do depends on whether you have to actually destroy the weapons, or instead can give them to your trusted friend…
Then we know where this is going.
Given Israel broke the ceasefire the same day they announced it, who’s blaming HAMAS?
No ceasefire is perfect and immediate. The question is always whether fighting dies down to near-zero or resumes the prior pace.
I say this as a person with no education or expertise about military history myself, but several unrelated media sources have made the same assertion over the last week or so.
No ceasefire is perfect and immediate. The question is always whether fighting dies down to near-zero or resumes the prior pace.
That would be understandable if we were talking about incidents by ground forces on the frontline. However, we’re talking about air raids and bombings days after the ceasefire is announced, refusal to let foreign aid in despite agreeing to it, keeping border crossings sealed, etc. Systemic and deliberate violations of the ceasefire treaty, in other words.
