As the US is preoccupied with the crisis in Iran, the Palestinian terror group Hamas has again announced its rejection of President Donald J. Trump's 20-point plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas leaders may have told US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during secret meetings that the terror group does not rule out the possibility of laying down its weapons. "Hamas has always indicated that they would disarm," Witkoff said in November 2025.
"They've said so – they said it to us directly during the famous meeting that Jared [Kushner] had with them. I hope they keep their word because if they do, they'll understand that the development plan we have for Gaza is really terrific – a lot better than anyone has ever discussed before."
When addressing Arab audiences in Arabic, however, Hamas leaders and senior officials have been saying the exact opposite.
Anyone who believes that Hamas would "keep their word" is grotesquely misguided. Before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, many people seemed to believe Hamas when its leaders used to say that they were interested in maintaining their ceasefire with Israel.
Moreover, the assumption that pro-Hamas members of the "Board of Peace" such as Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan would participate in any effort to disarm the terror group is clueless and misinformed.
Recent statements in Arabic by two of the terror group's senior officials, Khaled Mashaal and Mahmoud Mardawi, show that Hamas remains vehemently opposed to Trump's plan, specifically the provisions concerning disarmament, the involvement of foreigners in the governance of the Gaza Strip, and the deployment of an international security force there.
Reminder: Trump's plan, announced in October 2025, calls for the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic committee that would be responsible for "delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the 'Board of Peace,' which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump."
According to Trump's plan:
"There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning..." [Emphasis added.]
The plan, in addition, calls for the establishment of "a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza"
In early February, Mashaal, head of Hamas's political bureau abroad, told the 17th Al-Jazeera Forum:
"Talk about disarmament is an attempt to make the Palestinian people an easy victim that Israel can eliminate. If we return to the big question about the root of the conflict, that it is a matter of occupation, and a people resisting occupation, with the right to self-determination, then the question of resistance, and its weapons, becomes natural."
Resistance, Mashaal clarified, takes various forms, including "a revolution, sometimes an uprising, and sometimes armed resistance."
It is important to note that "resistance" is a sanitization for terrorism and violence against Israelis.
When Hamas talks about "occupation," it is referring to Israel's existence, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to within any borders and understandably wants to keep its weapons to pursue its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.
Hamas's 1988 charter quotes the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, as saying: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Mashaal said his group would be prepared to discuss the issue of disarmament only after the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip begins and as part of a long-term ceasefire with Israel.
He also said that Hamas, backed by Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, is willing to accept a truce lasting five to 10 years, but without handing over its weapons.
Regarding Trump's International Stabilization Force, Mashaal has stated that the troops should be deployed only "on the borders" of the Gaza Strip (with Egypt and Israel) to prevent any clashes or renewed fighting. This stipulation means that the ISF should have no role in destroying the terror infrastructure or disarming the terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
Finally, the Hamas leader repeated his group's unequivocal rejection of Trump's "Board of Peace."
"We do not accept the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or a return of the mandate. Palestinians govern Palestinians," Mashaal stressed.
"This requires great effort, not a simple approach of disarmament," he concluded.
Mardawi, the other senior Hamas official, also declared that his group "will not give up its weapons."
Hamas, he added, might consider surrendering its weapons only after a Palestinian state is established. "The issue of the resistance weapons is linked to the political goals of the Palestinian people," he emphasized.
It is crucial that the Trump administration and the rest of the international community start paying attention to what Hamas says in its own language, Arabic, not what some of its leaders or friends in Qatar and Turkey tell foreign officials in English and behind closed doors.
More than four months have passed since the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip went into effect, and all indications are that Hamas is working hard to rearm, regroup, and maintain its presence both as a political and military entity in violation of Trump's plan. Hamas evidently does not take seriously Trump's repeated warnings that it must disarm and relinquish control of the Gaza Strip.
Even if Hamas does hand over some of its weapons, it will only be as part of a façade to appease the Trump administration and facilitate the entry of aid and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas will never actually lay down all its weapons: they are central to its ideology, which requires all Muslims to take part in the Jihad to liberate all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
"The liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Muslim wherever he may be. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters." (Articles 14 and 15, Hamas Charter)
The chances that Hamas will voluntarily disarm or abandon its Jihad against Israel are pitifully low, if not zero. Disarmament would undermine Hamas's core identity, reduce its political influence within Palestinian politics, and deprive it of what it claims to view as deterrence against Israel. Historically, however, Israel does not attack anyone unless it is attacked first.
The only way to ensure the success of Trump's plan is by insisting that Hamas cease to exist, both as a political and as a military entity, and vanish from the Palestinian universe. Failure to do so will only encourage Hamas and other Islamists to pursue their Jihad to kill more Jews, eliminate Israel, and defy Trump.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
