Hamas official says group needs guarantees on war's end and statehood to disarm
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim stopped short of pledging that Hamas would not fire on international troops, but said the militant group has "no problem” with the stabilization force.
DOHA, Qatar — Hamas will begin to lay down its weapons if a political process for Palestinian statehood is initiated and the international community guarantees that Israel will not resume its military operations in the Gaza Strip, a senior member of Hamas’ political wing told Al-Monitor.
Hamas official Basem Naim said that his group is prepared to “immediately” transfer political authority in Gaza to a committee of Palestinian technocrats, as envisioned by President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. He also said Hamas would accept the deployment of an international stabilization force, provided it remains "near the border as a peacekeeping force" and doesn't enter Gaza's cities.
Naim spoke to Al-Monitor in a Dec. 7 interview conducted at one of Hamas’ offices a short drive from the city center of Doha, the Qatari capital that has hosted the group's political bureau since 2012.
Early in the interview, Naim said Hamas would surrender its weapons only to a future Palestinian state, but later said that the decommissioning could begin under a long-term truce of 5-10 years that includes guarantees Israel will not resume the war that’s estimated to have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians.
