Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who is based outside of Gaza, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Hamas is willing to discuss the idea of “freezing or storing” its weapons to advance the US’s Gaza plan.
The 20-point US plan calls for the “demilitarization” of Gaza, and Israel has been demanding Hamas’s disarmament, but so far, Israel and Hamas have just signed a much narrower deal to enact a ceasefire, which Israel continues to violate, and the details of a long-term agreement still need to be worked out.
Naim reaffirmed Hamas’s position that it’s willing to disarm as part of a process that leads to a Palestinian state, something the Israeli government strongly opposes. But Naim added that Hamas was “very open-minded” about what it could do with its weapons and suggested some sort of temporary deal.
“We can talk about freezing or storing or laying down, with the Palestinian guarantees, not to use it at all during this ceasefire time or truce,” Naim told AP during an interview in Doha, Qatar.
The Hamas official also said the group supports the idea of an international peacekeeping force being deployed to Gaza, but not one that’s tasked with disarmament.
“We are welcoming a UN force to be near the borders, supervising the ceasefire agreement, reporting about violations, preventing any kind of escalations,” Naim said. “But we don’t accept that these forces have any kind of mandates authorizing them to do or to be implemented inside the Palestinian territories.”
The US plan, which has been backed by a UN Security Council resolution that places Gaza under the control of a US-led board, calls for an “International Stabilization Force” to be deployed to replace IDF troops in the Strip. But progress has been slow on forming the force since the mission is unclear, and countries fear their troops could end up fighting Hamas on behalf of Israel.
Israel currently occupies more than 50% of Gaza’s territory, and there are signs that Israeli officials are planning a permanent occupation. Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, a key mediator, said on Saturday that a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is needed for a real ceasefire.
“What we have just done is a pause. We cannot consider it yet a ceasefire,” al-Thani told the Doha Forum. “A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, there is stability back in Gaza, people can go in and out, which is not the case today.”
