AhlulBayt News Agency: Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said the movement will only relinquish its weapons once Israel’s occupation has ended, explaining that the arms would then be transferred to a future Palestinian state authority responsible for governing Gaza.
Al-Hayya outlined Hamas’s position in remarks reported on Friday, saying that disarmament is conditional on the complete end of Israeli control. Only at that point, he said, would Hamas be prepared to hand its weapons over to a government operating under the sovereignty of the State of Palestine and tasked with administering the Gaza Strip.
“The presence of our weapons is tied to the presence of the occupier,” he said. “If that reality changes, we will deliver our weapons to the Palestinian state.”
His office later clarified to Agence France-Presse that the term “government” referred specifically to the State of Palestine.
Al-Hayya added that discussions over the future of Hamas’s weapons are ongoing with other Palestinian factions as well as with mediators. He also noted that Hamas accepts the idea of international forces serving as border monitors and supervising any potential ceasefire agreement.
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