Hamas rejects US proposals for disarmament & Gaza security force, stockpiles weapons in friendly countries

Following reports that the U.S. may not insist on the disarmament of Hamas as a requirement for moving to the next phase of the Gaza peace plan, new reports on Sunday said that Hamas has begun stockpiling weapons in friendly countries. 

The report, aired on Sunday on Israel's public broadcaster Kan News, claims that Hamas has been stockpiling weapons in Yemen, in Africa, and other countries supportive of the terror group.

While Kan did not cite a source for the report, it claimed that Hamas is storing the weapons outside of Gaza in anticipation that they could be smuggled back into areas under the group’s control at a later date. 

According to Kan, this behavior demonstrates that Hamas is not interested in ceasing its war efforts against Israel. 

The report comes as U.S. Special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya sometime in the near future, as part of efforts to move forward with the peace plan put forward by President Donald Trump. 

At the same time, Hamas and other Palestinian factions rejected the U.S. resolution on the International Stabilization Force (ISF) presented to the UN Security Council. 

In a statement issued by Hamas in the name of all the Palestinian factions, the groups warned “of the dangers of the US draft resolution submitted for a vote at the Security Council, which calls for the establishment of an international force in the Gaza Strip.” 

According to the statement, the factions “consider it an attempt to impose international trusteeship on the Strip and to pass a vision biased towards the occupation (Israel).” 

Hamas said the U.S. resolution “transforms the force (ISF) into an entity serving the occupation through direct coordination with it.” 

The factions said that the ISF “must be fully under the authority and direct supervision of the United Nations, and must operate exclusively in coordination with official Palestinian institutions, without involving the occupation or granting it any powers or field coordination.”

Furthermore, the factions argued that the ISF should focus only on “protecting civilians, ensuring the flow of aid, and separating forces, without transforming into a security authority or supranational administration.” 

The statement by the factions explicitly rejected “any clause related to the disarmament of Gaza or any infringement on the Palestinian people's right to resist and defend themselves.” Hamas said that any discussion on weapons is “an internal matter” and should only be linked to the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

The UN Security Council is set to vote on the U.S. resolution later today, after a recent joint statement by several of the signatories to President Trump’s peace plan in support of the resolution. The joint statement said that the Security Council resolution “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” 

Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said failure to pass the resolution “is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict.” 

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel rejects any attempts to avoid the demilitarization of Hamas or impose a Palestinian state on it. 

In the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu addressed "the subject of the alleged 'non-demilitarization' of the part of Gaza that is in the hands of Hamas.” 

“There will be no such thing," Netanyahu stated. "This territory will be demilitarized, and Hamas will be disarmed.” 

Netanyahu also reiterated the government’s rejection of a Palestinian state “in any territory west of the Jordan [River], this opposition is existing, valid, and has not changed one bit.”

“I have been rebuffing these attempts for decades and I am doing it both against pressures from outside and against pressures from within,” Netanyahu told the cabinet. 

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, Kan News reported that a Palestinian source told the news agency that the Hamas fighters trapped on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line in Gaza are “not willing to surrender.” 

The sources said that around 100 terrorists are trapped in the tunnels, which include operatives with combat experience and terrorists who were only recently recruited to Hamas' military wing. 

The U.S. has been pressuring Israel to agree to allow the Hamas fighters safe passage out of Israeli-controlled territory, in exchange for giving up their weapons. So far, the Israeli government has not agreed to do so. In fact, Israel appears to be readying for a resumption of conflict if the Security Council resolution does not pass and no solution is found for the ISF. 

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