Hamas rejects disarmament & decries stabilization force despite UN resolution affirming Trump's Gaza Peace Plan
Witkoff reported to meet with Hamas leaders in Turkey in attempt to reach agreement
The terror organization Hamas on Monday rejected the UN Security Council's adoption of the US-proposed resolution endorsing President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza and the establishment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF).
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera that the U.S. had never proposed disarmament during negotiations.
“No clause regarding the disarmament of the resistance was on the table in the Sharm El-Sheikh negotiations,” Hamdan told the Qatari outlet. “It is unacceptable that we be imposed with the equation of either we are killed or we surrender.”
Trump administration officials have said that Hamas leaders committed to disarmament in talks held with the U.S.
Hamas said that the resolution "falls short of the political and humanitarian demands and rights of our Palestinian people and imposes an international trusteeship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people, forces, and factions reject.”
According to a statement released on Tuesday, Hamas again rejected the call for its disarmament and the establishment of the ISF, saying it affirms the Palestinian “people's right to resistance and self-defense, rejecting the UN Security Council resolution and considering it a tool of trusteeship and international complicity in the annihilation of our people.”
Hamas also said that "transforming the international force into a security apparatus coordinated with the occupation [Israel]… transforms the force into an additional foreign occupying power and a new tool for aggression against our people and the continuation of their extermination.”
It claimed that the resolution imposes "an international trusteeship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people, forces, and factions reject.”
Furthermore, Hamas claimed the U.S.-sponsored resolution “severs the Gaza Strip from the rest of the Palestinian territories and attempts to impose new realities that disregard our people's fundamental principles and legitimate national rights, thus depriving our people of their right to self-determination and the establishment of their Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The UN Security Council voted to approve the US draft resolution endorsing President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan on Monday evening. The resolution includes the establishment and deployment of an international force, whose makeup and role is still under contention.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, described the resolution as "historic and constructive," saying the resolution “provides a real, actionable pathway to lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Waltz also stated that the resolution “authorizes an International Stabilization Force to stabilize the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure. It also ensures the decommissioning from Hamas and its partners.”
Unlike Hamas, the Palestinian Authority welcomed the passage of the US-drafted resolution in an official statement.
It noted that the resolution confirms the establishment of a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the unimpeded entry and delivery of humanitarian aid, and the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent Palestinian state.
The PA “stressed the urgent need for immediate action to implement this resolution on the ground, ensuring the return to normalcy, the protection of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the prevention of displacement, the complete withdrawal of the occupying forces, reconstruction, an end to the undermining of the two-state solution, and the prevention of annexation.”
It reiterated its readiness to assume full responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, considering the enclave “an integral part of the State of Palestine.”
The final version includes an explicit reference to the possible establishment of a Palestinian state, which provoked a strong Israeli reaction, with some politicians warning the resolution would force a Palestinian state on Israel.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement to 𝕏 in English, praising the the resolution and thanking President Donald Trump.
“The State of Israel and PM Netanyahu applaud President Donald Trump and his tireless and devoted team,” the statement said.
“We believe that President Trump‘s plan will lead to peace and prosperity because it insists upon full demilitarization, disarmament and the deradicalization of Gaza,” Netanyahu continued.
According to a report in Israel Hayom, Ambassador Mike Waltz told representatives of the countries considering joining the ISF that the U.S. will allow Israel to resume the war in Gaza if Hamas does not disarm.
Previous reports have claimed that the U.S. will start reconstruction efforts in the section of the Gaza Strip currently held by the IDF, until Hamas agrees to disarm and surrender all political control of the Strip.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is reportedly set to meet a delegation of senior Hamas officials led by Khalil al-Hayya in Istanbul as part of an effort to keep the Gaza peace process moving forward. Witkoff is expected to reaffirm the United States' demand that Hamas disarm and could threaten the group with a resumption of hostilities if it refuses.
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The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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