Never Agreed To Disarm

It’s hard to know who is telling the truth with Hamas these days. But when do they ever tell the objective truth about anything? US President Donald Trump among others said that Hamas will disarm as we see in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

Hamas was a "big factor in the return of hostages from Gaza," US President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Thursday. Trump also said that it "looked like Hamas would disarm."

Another official in the Trump administration, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said much the same thing, but added a stronger reason for them doing it:

"We got the terrorists out of there, and they're going to demilitarize," Witkoff continued, echoing Trump's earlier sentiment. "They will, because they have no choice."

The US really believes that Hamas will lay down their arms, but according to a high ranking Hamas official, they never said they agreed to do it as part of accepting the ceasefire deal as we’re told in a report, this time from the Jewish News Syndicate:

Senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the terrorist organization never agreed to disarmament as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal for the Gaza Strip.

“Not for a single moment did we talk about surrender the weapons, or any formula about destroying, surrendering or disarmament,” Abu Marzouk claimed in an interview with the Qatari state broadcaster.

And he added that Hamas is actually making the area more peaceful and stable:

According to him, Hamas gunmen have already moved to “restore order” across parts of the Strip from which the Israeli military has withdrawn. The United States, United Nations and Israel “want international peacekeeping forces, but these forces say it’s not their job to disarm any Palestinian [terrorist] faction in the Gaza Strip,” Abu Marzouk continued.

He then asserted that the notion of disarming never came up in the negotiations and that mere negotiations wouldn’t work:

Disarmament “was never even presented to us,” the Hamas official said, “because after a battle of this magnitude, with such steadfastness, and with the inability of Israel, America and the West to disarm or destroy Hamas’s weapons, did they think they could obtain it through talks?”

Abu Marzouk then was just as defiant on the issue of ceding control of Gaza:

Asked about its commitment to cede control of the Strip to the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), which Washington has described as a transitional technocratic body meant to exclude the terror group, Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera that “nobody can enter Gaza without understandings with Hamas.”

“If Hamas doesn’t agree to the administrative committee, it cannot enter the Gaza Strip,” he said, claiming to have veto power over its members.

He said that Hamas has full veto power over anyone coming into Gaza and that they’ve already used it.

A Challenge

The US, for its part is still calling for Hamas to leave Gaza:

The U.S. State Department told JNS on Wednesday that demilitarizing Hamas remains “a central challenge” to implementing its peace plan. The statement came in response to a Reuters report that Hamas is seeking to incorporate some 10,000 of its terrorists into the NCAG.

The statement was issued after news that Hamas is trying to include its own soldiers in the NCAG:

The report, which cited four sources familiar with the matter, noted that many Hamas operatives have already been patrolling Gaza as the terror group is attempting to reassert its grip in areas still under its control.

A US official reiterated that Hamas did indeed agree to disarm and only process is being discussed:

“Hamas must demilitarize as they agreed to do when they accepted the 20-Point Plan,” according to a U.S. State Department spokesperson, who acknowledged that “conversations on how to proceed” were ongoing.

This source echoed what Israel needs as well:

“The demilitarization of Hamas remains a central challenge—one that we are hopeful we can overcome,” they said. “Demilitarization means Hamas can no longer pose a threat to Israel or the people of Gaza.”

Trump, as only he can, guarantees that it will happen one way of the other:

Trump warned on Jan. 21 that Hamas “will be blown away very quickly” if it fails to disarm under the second phase of Washington’s peace plan.

The US President confirmed that Hamas is supposed to disarm as part of peace deal:

Speaking at a question-and-answer session in Davos after his address to the World Economic Forum, the president said Hamas had “agreed to give up their weapons” as part of his 20-point initiative for the Strip.

The terrorists just keep saying they won’t do it, though:

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, however, has publicly rejected demands that his group disarm, declaring on Dec. 6 that “protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves.

“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation] honor and pride,” the senior terrorist told an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul. He added, “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”

This is typical talk for Hamas and other terrorists in the region including Iran. And it is typical for them to assert that any agreement is only the starting point for a deal rather than the framework for implementing it. Ultimately the US will have to make them do it or let Israel finish the job of destroying them, or both. I can tell you that nothing in this 800 plus day war has given us any indication that Hamas will surrender their arms or their power. As I said yesterday there will be fireworks as in military actions very soon now that all the hostages are safely back in Israel. While I’d rather this all be done peacefully and in an orderly fashion, the words of Hamas lead me to believe that won’t be the case. And the prophetic words in Psalm 83 are set to be fulfilled now. And yes, pray for the peace of Jerusalem now more than ever.