{"id":49435,"date":"2026-02-08T12:12:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=49435"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:12:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:12:53","slug":"top-hamas-leader-rejects-disarmament-or-foreign-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/02\/08\/top-hamas-leader-rejects-disarmament-or-foreign-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Hamas leader rejects disarmament or &#8216;foreign rule&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Hamas has waged an armed struggle against what it sees as Israel&#8217;s occupation of Palestinian territories. <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A senior Hamas leader said Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement would not surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCriminalising the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept,\u201d Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation \u2026 something nations take pride in,\u201d said Meshal, who previously headed the group.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: UN accuses Israel of West Bank \u2018apartheid\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hamas, an Islamist movement, has waged an armed struggle against what it sees as Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestinian territories. <\/p>\n<p>It launched a deadly cross-border raid into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, which triggered the latest war.<\/p>\n<p>A US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is in its second phase, which foresees that demilitarisation of the territory \u2013 including the disarmament of Hamas \u2013 along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.<\/p>\n<p>Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials say that Hamas still has around 20 000 fighters and about 60 000 Kalashnikovs in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over the day-to-day governance in the battered Gaza Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarisation.<\/p>\n<p>The committee operates under the so-called \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Israel demolishes Jerusalem building, evicting Palestinians<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Originally conceived to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board\u2019s mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p>Trump unveiled the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos last month, where leaders and officials from nearly two dozen countries joined him in signing its founding charter.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the Board of Peace, Trump also created a Gaza Executive Board \u2014 an advisory panel to the Palestinian technocratic committee \u2014 comprising international figures including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Meshal urged the Board of Peace to adopt what he called a \u201cbalanced approach\u201d that would allow for Gaza\u2019s reconstruction and the flow of aid to its roughly 2.2 million residents, while warning that Hamas would \u201cnot accept foreign rule\u201d over Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form,\u201d Meshal said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPalestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW READ:<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Israel approves 19 new settlements in West Bank<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Top #Hamas #leader #rejects #disarmament #foreign #rule<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hamas has waged an armed struggle against what it sees as Israel&#8217;s occupation of Palestinian territories. A senior Hamas leader&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49437,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49435\/revisions\/49437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}